ISHIKAWA, Jul. 19 – Soap bubbles may be an effective replacement for bees in the future. A group of researchers of the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) has recently succeeded in pollinating fruit flowers by spraying soap bubbles containing pollen. They’re now trying to see if a drone equipped with a bubble sprayer can autonomously move around a fruit orchard and pollinate flowers. The decline in the number of honeybees and other pollinators is a common problem among the world’s fruit growers. The farmers can pollinate their trees by hand using feather brushes, but the time and labor required for the job are growing as the farmers … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Jul. 11 – The Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (JA-ZENCHU), an apex organization of agricultural cooperatives (JAs) in Japan, and Juntendo University announced on July 10 a result of their joint study which showed that getting hands-on experience at a farm has an effect of reducing stress and increasing sense of happiness. Using the data, JA-ZENCHU hopes to further promote farms that provide agricultural experiences to attract more users. JA-ZENCHU and the university conducted the research in November 2018 with cooperation from National Farming Experience Farms, a nonprofit organization promoting farms that offer agricultural experiences, to see the effects of farming experience on people’s stress levels. They asked 40 … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Jul. 14 – Several restaurant chains are introducing desserts featuring fresh melons grown in Japan. Cakes and parfaits with a lot of the fruit in season will hopefully pull in more customers and loosen up their wallets to help the foodservice industry hit hard by the new coronavirus outbreak. Sweets Paradise is a chain restaurant with an all-you-can-eat dessert buffet with stores in and the west of the Kanto east Japan area. On July 10, it started offering a limited-time dessert buffet featuring melon. The plan includes cut melon, special melon cakes, drinks, and, most importantly, one whole melon per group, which was the most popular attraction last year. … Continue reading →

TOTTORI, Jul. 4 – Tottori Prefecture has begun an online beef auction in Taiwan using social media in an effort to promote the local specialty Tottori wagyu beef. The prefecture hopes to maintain and expand beef exports which have recently been declining amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Blocks of sirloin steaks and fillets are put on sale on a Facebook page of a meat wholesaler in Taiwan and buyers write down their bid prices in the comment section. The first auction, held on May 29 on the page specially created for Tottori beef, attracted 76,000 views, as a meat wholesaler live streamed the event, showing different beef cuts and explaining their … Continue reading →