January 19, 2013
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2013 January 16 - 22 [ENVIRONMENT]
Together with consumers, farmers start renewable power generation |
“Without depending on large corporations, we want to locally generate energy that can be used for local consumption,” said Kobayashi Yukio, director of the agricultural producers’ cooperative corporation.
The corporation sent its staff on a study tour to Germany and Switzerland last year. In Switzerland, they visited a cheese factory which gives coupons to consumers who contributed 1,000 franc for its power-generating system. Corporation members after the tour discussed how to launch a similar program in their locality.
The corporation delivers fresh produce to schools, co-ops, and consumers. In a program using 625,000 square-meters of rice paddies, it directly makes contracts with consumers and delivers rice every month to them, and consumers can visit the farms and take part in rice planting and harvesting.
In the new power-generation program, the corporation plans to install solar panels on a rice mill plant and generate 40 to 50 kilowatt hours of electricity necessary for the rice mill.
In order to obtain the 20 million yen needed for the installation of the solar-power generation system, the corporation encourages consumers to send it 50,000 yen each. Those who made the contribution will receive fresh rice, vegetables, fruits, and meat every year for 10 years.
It has invited over 100 consumer supporters and is attempting to reach 200, according to Kobayashi.
The massive earthquake and subsequent nuclear accident in Fukushima in 2011 have greatly affected the corporation’s activities. In order to respond to consumers anxieties, it measures radiation levels on food products before shipping.
“We demand that Tokyo Electric Power Co. pay for the measurement costs. The national government and TEPCO need to realize how costly and risky nuclear power generation is,” said Kobayashi.
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