【Opinion】 Feeding a warmer, riskier world – José Graziano da Silva, Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (March 14, 2014)

Posted on 2015-03-14 by The Japan Agricultural News

  <Dr. José Graziano da Silva, the Director-General of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), contributed this article to The Japan Agricultural News ahead of the U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction to be held in Sendai, Japan.> Artificial meat. Indoor aquaculture. Vertical farms. Irrigation drones. Once the realm of science fiction, these things are now fact.  Food production is going high tech ? at least, in some places. But the vast majority of the world’s farmers still face that old and fundamental fact: their crops, their very livelihoods, depend on how mother nature treats them. Over 80 percent of world agriculture today remains dependent on … Continue reading →

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【Editorial】 Politics must back up farm co-ops’ self-reform efforts to revitalize regions (March 13, 2015)

Posted on 2015-03-13 by The Japan Agricultural News

  The Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives (JA-Zenchu) will start full-scale discussions on the JA group’s self-reform plan based on the government and ruling parties’ outline for agricultural co-ops reform. The group holds its national convention once every three years, and the resolution to be adopted at this year’s convention will set the policies for the coming three years. Let us put our heads together for the future of regional agriculture and the society, and politics should support such efforts. Regarding discussions on agricultural reform, the JA group has strongly called for the need to maintain co-operatives rooted in local communities focusing on food and agriculture, in order to increase … Continue reading →

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【News】 Nagano fights ecosystem invasion of signal crayfish – by eating them (March 10, 2015)

Posted on 2015-03-10 by The Japan Agricultural News

The Nagano Prefectural Government’s Shimoina branch in Iida and the local government of Matsukawa have jointly held an event in Matsukawa to taste dishes which use signal crayfish, an invasive alien species found at Katagiri Lake Dam operated by the prefecture. Cooking signal crayfish is part of their efforts to stem the spread of the species. Local restaurants presented various ways of cooking signal crayfish, such as putting them in fried rice or dressing them with mayonnaise. Kiyoshi Matsuzawa, 66-year-old chef of Japanese restaurant Mifuku, said although signal crayfish are small in size, their taste and flavor is good enough to be treated as a gourmet food. Signal crayfish, originating … Continue reading →

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【News】 Revitalizing pine tree forest to protect younger generation (March 8, 2015)

Posted on 2015-03-08 by The Japan Agricultural News

Kotaro Yamada -Coastal forest restoration project (Natori-shi, Miyagi Prefecture)- Four years ago when the Great East Japan Earthquake struck Japan, 400-year-old coastal forest in the Tohoku region was lost to a massive Tsunami. And now, farmers of Natori-shi, Miyagi Prefecture, are trying to reforest the coast, pursing a long-term project that aims at restoring the 100 hectares coastal forest in Natori-shi, Miyagi Prefecture, by 2020, using locally-grown black pine trees. The revitalized forest will become a natural shield from destructive sand storms and salty winds, so Natori farmers are strongly determined to complete the task that will take several decades. “These pine trees are vital to farmers here,” said a … Continue reading →

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【News】 Students in Aomori fight against culling of abandoned pets by using their bones as manure to grow flowers (March 4, 2015)

Posted on 2015-03-04 by The Japan Agricultural News

Hiroko Obara Students of Aomori Prefectural Sambongi Agriculture High School in Towada, Aomori Prefecture, are working on a project to use powdered bones of culled pets as manure to grow flowers. The students have grown some 1,500 pots of flowers in three years under the “flowers of life” project, aimed at conveying the preciousness of life and life cycle. The project was started in 2012 by the pet research laboratory of the school’s zoological science division. Students of the laboratory, who visited the prefecture’s animal shelter in the city of Aomori during a field trip, were told that more than 2,000 pet dogs and cats abandoned by their owners are … Continue reading →

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