We are still concerned about the undetermined events that led to the contamination of long grain rice in the Southern States and skeptical about the control of genetically modified crops. The events demonstrate that even experimental plots of small sizes could cause a large scale of contamination. The fact that a California mill was contaminated by GM Liberty Link rice is of great concern to us.

We have learned that field trials of genetically modified rice in California have taken place even after the adoption of the rice field trial moratorium resolution. We are aware that genetically modified rice varieties have been experimented with for over a decade in California near rice farms and research facilities. We are very concerned about the ongoing risk of contamination of short and medium grain rice in California that this presents.

On August 22, 2008, we received a reply from the California Rice Commission, stating that they are “very aware of the concerns of Japanese consumers regarding this issue.” They also explain that they “continue to take all available steps to ensure that an event like the one that occurred in the Southern United States does not happen in California.” They claim to be testing all rice for GM Liberty Link contamination, which we appreciate.

In the Philippines, only export Cavendish banana plantations use aerial spraying to apply pesticides. Communities within and around these plantations complain of the health effects they suffer, contamination of water sources and destruction of their livelihoods.

After enduring this for years, affected residents and civil society groups waged an intensive campaign to stop the aerial spraying practice of banana plantations.

For more information, please visit the website http://www.dirtybananas.org/

Summary of Lecture by Hiroshi Yasuda
April 26, 2008
Tokyo, Japan

We have conducted investigations to determine the degree of heavy metal pollution in hair from parents and children in Japan. This kind of study is rarely done, so we think the data is very valuable. Among the heavy metals that are needed by the body, intake of minerals through food is necessary to a certain degree. However, there are substances that do more harm, such as mercury, lead and cadmium. In Japan, these are known for the specific diseases they caused in the past, such as Minamata disease (mercury), lead poisoning, and the Itai-itai disease (cadmium). Also, arsenic in milk and water wells have caused health problems. Aluminum is known to cause dialysis encephalopathy syndrome, while copper has caused the Wilson disease. Even though they are all necessary substances, they can cause severe symptoms and disease if the intake is high.

In this study, we looked at the concentrations of harmful heavy metals in hair samples from 34 women (control group), 78 mothers, 49 children (female) and 31 children (boys). We investigated the levels, and generally we found that they were higher in the children than in their mothers.

We found that for both mercury and arsenic there was a positive correlation between levels found in mother and child. For cadmium, lead, and aluminum, there were significantly higher values in the children than in the mothers. Some among the children had 10 times higher levels compared to their mothers.

More details: Food Safety Citizen’s Watch Issue # 16

The Non! GMO Campaign has sent a letter to Australian food producers regarding GM-free dairy products:

Japan currently imports farm products, beef and other meat products, dairy products, natural cheese, and wheat from the following top four countries: The United States, China, EU and Australia. Due to the outbreak of BSE in North America, Japan has increased its imports of beef from Australia and New Zealand, as we are aware of the fact that safe and delicious beef as well as dairy products are produced by grass feeding. In particular, we understand that since Australia has sufficient pasture land, you are raising cows with grass instead of feeding large amounts of grain.

However, we are very concerned that several states in your country lifted their moratoria against farming GM crops. We agree with the Australian NGO “Mothers against Genetic Engineering”, who say: “We want our children to drink milk from cows that are not fed with GM feed!”

Since Japan imports most of its feed from North America, GM feed is generally used for domestic dairy cows. Under such circumstances, we strongly support all dairy farmers here and abroad who are raising cows with non-GM feed. Japanese consumers actively choose dairy products from such dairy farmers. Japan imports dairy products including natural cheese from Australia, and we also import natural cheese from EU countries. If you allow GM feed for raising cows in Australia, Japanese consumers may choose European dairy products that are produced with milk from cows and goats raised locally with non-GM feed.

Australian food producers and Japan’s consumers should cooperate to secure GM-free dairy products.

The G8 Summit opened in Hokkaido in July, 2008 with the usual rhetoric of concern about conditions in Africa. These are statements that few people in Africa and the rest of the world take seriously, given how far the G8 governments are from raising the $20 billion they pledged for Africa at the Gleneagles Summit in 2005.

Indeed, if there is anything that distinguishes this particular G8 summit, it is its low credibility. In George Bush, Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Yasuo Fukuda, we have a group of discredited leaders who are very unpopular with their own electorates. Moreover, in addition to their broken promises on Africa, the G8 have also failed miserably to deliver on their other pledges, notably, canceling the debt of the poor countries, raising aid levels to 0.7 per cent of the GDP of the G8 countries, promoting development through trade, and tackling climate change.

As the G8 meet, the world is reeling from four crises that are unfolding simultaneously: the skyrocketing price of oil, the massive rise in the price of food, the financial crisis that is bringing the global economy to its knees, and the acceleration of global warming. To expect the G8 to come up with solutions to these crises is to expect the impossible since these are the inevitable consequences of the G8’s promotion of a project of globalization that has mainly benefited and enriched their corporate elites.

Read the entire declaration on the G8 Action Network website.

On a hot day in July we finished compiling the latest issue of Japan Resources. Many articles about our consumer activities, the large peace conference to support Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution, the trip to the Planet Diversity Conference in Germany and the campaign to keep Australia GMO-free. – Editors

CONTENTS:

About Food Mileage
Book Review: Another Japan is Possible
Global Article 9 Declaration to Abolish War
Evaluate the Food Safety Commission before Establishing a Consumer Agency
Yes to Non-GMO Feed
No to GMO Sugar Beet Crops
Report from the Planet Diversity Conference in Bonn, Germany
Tokyo Actions Against the G8 Meeting

Opposing the summit, NGOs are organizing actions against the summit. This event will take place in Tokyo on June 28-29, 2008.

G8 Action Network (English)

We welcome the opportunity to collaborate in actions with people who tackle with issues of poverty, labor, discrimination, war, violence, gender inequality, social exclusion, environmental destruction, abuse of human rights, food safety, agriculture, minority, and public order. Our aim is to spread our dissent to as many as possible people immediately before the G8 summit.

Among the speakers is Yasuaki Yamaura from CUJ, who will discuss the opposition against WTO and Free Trade Agreements, food safety and food security, in light of the current global food crisis.

More information with a video here (in Japanese).

At the rally, anti-GMO activists including Percy Schmeiser and Vandana Shiva spoke to the 6,000 people who gathered from all over Germany and other countries for the event. At the workshops, participants discussed plant and livestock diversity, building knowledge around biodiversity, and key issues of the official biosafety negotiations held later in May.

Koketsu Michiyo from CUJ participated in the workshop on health impacts of GMOs organised by the Federation of Ecological Physicists, including Dr. Arpad Pushtai, who has a vast experience with GMO and has visited Japan. “We don’t only need networks between people, but between people and plants, and people and planet earth,” notes Koketsu-san from CUJ, who says she bebame aware of this during the six days in Bonn, Germany.

Read the full report here:

080617-cuj-planet-diversity-report (pdf)

Read more on the Planet Diversity website:
http://www.planet-diversity.org/home.html

The independent watchdog, Food Safety Citizens’ Watch meets regularly and discusses important topics. As Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced that the Government would establish a consumer agency, the FSCW wants to point out that there has been no proper evaluation of the roles played by Japan’s Food Safety Commission and the Fundamental law for food safety in protecting the citizens’ health and guaranteeing the safety of our food. Before creating a new consumer administrative body, FSCW believes it is necessary to impartiality evaluate the current achievements, pointing out both the positive and negative aspects.

In a special resolution, FSCW therefore requests that the present Food Safety Commission should be thoroughly evaluated before a new Consumer Agency is established.

Special Resolution:
Evaluate the Food Safety Commission before Establishing a Consumer Agency

At a meeting with the government panel on consumer issues on April 23, 2008, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced that the Government would establish a consumer agency the next fiscal year. This new body will reportedly have authority over all consumer-related issues including food safety, and will operate as a “control tower” over consumer protection with competence for planning, legal execution and advising. However, the Government decided that the relevant members from existing consumer-related government bodies would be unified within the consumer agency’s structure, wanting to deflect criticism for making the government bigger.

In this context, we want to point out that there has been no proper evaluation of the roles played by the Food Safety Commission and the Fundamental law for food safety in protecting the citizens’ health and guaranteeing the safety of our food. Before creating a new consumer administrative body, we believe it is necessary to impartiality evaluate the current achievements, pointing out both the positive and negative aspects.

We therefore request that the present Food Safety Commission should be thoroughly evaluated before a new Consumer Agency is established.

- Adopted by the participants at the sixth annual general meeting of Food Safety Citizens’ Watch on April 26, 2008

Food Safety Citizens’ Watch was established in April 2003 as a network of experts to monitor developments and make proposals to the government regarding food safety issues from the citizen’s point of view.

English Newsletter Website: Food Safety Citizens’ Watch

Ms. Yoko Tomiyama, CUJ’s veteran activist and chairperson, participated in the huge Global Article 9 conference at Makuhari, Chiba on May 4-6, 2008.

A Declaration (pdf) was adopted by participants of the Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish War, endorsed by Nobel Peace Laureates Mairead Maguire, Jody Williams, and by the Nobel Women’s Peace Initiative. To read all the outcome documents of the Conference, click here.

Global Article 9 Conference Statement (pdf) towards the Non-Proliferation Treaty PrepCom meeting in Geneva, Switzerland (April 28 – May 9, 2008)

Global Article 9 Conference Statement to the G8 Summit (pdf) taking place in July 2008 in Hokkaido, Japan under Japanese presidency

This three-day event attracted over 33,000 participants nationwide: over 22,000 in Tokyo, 8,000 in Osaka, 2,000 in Hiroshima and 1,000 in Sendai. Close to 200 international guest speakers and participants came from 40 different countries and regions to represent all continents at the conference.

“I think that this book can explain the situations of Japanese modern social movements,” says Yamaura Yasuaki, CUJ’s vice chairperson. “Jennifer Chan’s research is wide-ranging and complete. We recommend it to all who are interested in new social movements and global citizenship education.”

	Another Japan Is Possible New Social Movements and Global Citizenship Education Edited by Jennifer Chan 2008 Buy this book
ONLINE RESOURCES Tables and Figures Table of Contents Acknowledgments Excerpt from the Introduction

January-March 2008

Here is a new issue of Japan Resources for you, fresh from our office in Waseda, Tokyo. Lots of articles about consumer activism in Japan and abroad. – Editors

Irradiated Food Ingredients
World Social Forum in Arakawa
“Rokkasho: Nobody Talks, Nothing Changes”
Rokkasho Protest Post Card Campaign
The Chinese Meat Dumpling Scandal
Stop Genetically Engineered Food Crops
Thank You South Australia!
No! GMO Request at Australian Embassy
Please Stop GM Canola Cultivation in Australia
Call to Action Against the G8
International Preparation Meeting about the Lake Toyako G8 Summit

“Food mileage” is a quantitative index that can give hints about the food supply structure, based on transportation. Transportation distance data is not included when expressing a country’s food self-sufficiency ratio. The self-sufficiency ratio shows the dependency on imports, which is only a part of the actual situation. According to Tetsuya Nakata, Kyushu Regional Agricultural Administration Office:

In 2001, Japan’s total volume of food imports was 58 million tons and its food mileage was 900 billion ton-km, the latter being almost 1.6 times the total domestic freightage. International comparisons show that this figure is high. The food mileage of South Korea and the United States are around 30 to 40% of Japan’s, the United Kingdom and Germany about 20% and France around 10%. The per capita figure of Japan is also high.Japan’s remarkably high food mileage is largely due to particular commodities such as grains and distant export countries such as the United States, and incurs environmental concerns. Japan’s huge volume of food imports accompanied by long-distance transportation may be damaging the global environment through the increase of carbon dioxide emissions.1)

It is clear that Japan’s food mileage is by far the largest, with an average transportation of 15,000 km, which is equivalent to the distance between Tokyo and Cape Town in South Africa. This is a figure that really forces us to think about our current situation.In the last few years, China has become Japan’s largest food trading partner, overtaking the United States. The distance of importing food has thus been getting shorter. Japan still imports a large amount of feed grains and food oil crops from the United States, Canada and Australia for its animal feed and food oil. Looking at these crops imported from United States only, these crops account for 60% of Japan’s total food mileage. Such crops are also increasingly used as biofuels, and the prices have been pushed higher due to rivalry on the global commodity markets. Furthermore, these crops are increasingly genetically modified.

From this it becomes clear that the Japanese government’s agricultural policy ignores the environmental effects, while in effect renouncing food security in its efforts to ensure a certain amount of domestic production. Also, the large food companies have been increasing the amount of imported food at low prices, with consumers accepting eating habits based on low-priced imported foods. Food education campaigns are ongoing, but we would like to propose an approach to the current food problem based on the “food mileage” perspective.

1) A Study on the Volume and Transportation Distance as to Food Imports (“Food Mileage”) and its Influence on the Environment, by Tetsuya NAKATA, Journal of Agricultural Policy Research, No.5, pp.45-59.

http://www.primaff.affrc.go.jp/english/publications/seisaku/5/5-2.pdf

By Miyake Seiko, Food Safety Citizens’ Watch

(END)

8 March, 2008 in Tokyo

Kurihara Yasushi from the Executive Office asked everyone to give their views and opinions regarding the G8.

The G8 Action Network is an open network composed of individuals and organizations who are questioning the G8 Summit itself. The Network is constructing a framework for exchange of information, designed to support many events and activities against the Summit.

Nations joining the G8 account for only 14% of the world’s population. Also, the G8 Summit is an informal meeting that does not comply with the procedures as requested by international laws. However, what is agreed there defines the movement of the world. For these reasons, we consider the G8 Summit undemocratic.

It was also pointed out that the policies carried out by the G8 are based on neo-liberalism. This is a world view holding that free trade or market liberalization could maximize profits and benefits for people. Neo-liberal proposals by the G8 have brought about many problems around the world to date.

Ogura Toshimaru from People’s Plan Study Group made a presentation about Japan’s government and its G8 activities at Lake Toyako in Hokkaido. He noted that Japan has selected global climate change and environmental problems as principal subjects for the meeting. At the same time, the government has been pushing hard to maintain the road taxes, a revenue source that continues the usual destruction of the environment. In this way, it is clearly putting forward a deceptive proposition for the G8 Summit.

Shimozawa Takashi from JANIC made a presentation about the G8 Summit NGO Forum. Even though environmental issues are at the center, he pointed out that so far, 114 NGOs are participating in the NGO Forum, which was started in January 2007. They have divided their activities into three groups: environment, poverty and human rights. It is their goal to respond to each official communique and have regular meetings with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They also intend to participate in the April, 2008 Sherpa meeting to explain the opinions of the NGOs. There will also be a Tanabata Campaign from April to July, as well as an alternative summit in Hokkaido immediately before the G8 Summit.

Yamaura Yasuaki from Consumers Union of Japan discussed the following points:

1) The G8 has deteriorated problems such as poverty and debt through international institutions including IMF, World Bank, or WTO, in addition to FTA and EPA agreements.

2) The G8 has consistently favoured big agribusiness firms. This is not only breaking the very foundation of small-scale farmers life around the world, but also expanding production of genetically modified crops or animals.

3) The G8 has pushed ahead with deregulations, such as the privatization of public services of rail, mail or medical care. In addition, liberalization of capital investment or finance has led to chaos such as the currency crisis in Asia or the subprime loan scandal.

4) The G8 has produced instability of labour, by relaxing the standards of labour laws.

5) The G8 has put priority on corporate activities and paid no attention to environmental destruction. The G8 policy on climate change will inevitably raise new problems including acceleration of more risky or speculative carbon trading or promotion of nuclear energy.

6) The G8 countries, who formerly built colonies in many regions, bear the responsibility for numerous wars or armed conflicts, and they are major weapons exporting states as well as nuclear-weapon states.

7) In the name of terrorism, the G8 has deprived life and freedom of people and violated human rights by mobilizing domestic or overseas police and military forces, such as in Afghanistan and and Iraq.

8) The G8 never discusses gender issues, ethnic minorities, indigenous people, or socially excluded people.

Please see the G8 Action Network website for news and updates:

http://www.jca.apc.org/alt-g8/

——————————————————–

Official website for the G8 Summit:

http://g8-summit.town.toyako.hokkaido.jp/eng/index.html

Resisting Free Trade, Militarism and Fighting for Real Solutions to Climate ChangeThe G8 Summit will be held July 7-9, 2008 in Toyako, Hokkaido, Japan. This will be a culmination of a series of ministerial preparation meeting beginning in March.

The G8 Action Network, a network of various Japanese organizations and movements, called on all social movements, peasant organizations, women, migrants, urban and rural poor, fisherfolks and civil society from all over the world who are resisting free trade in its many forms, war and militarism, the privatization of essential services and natural resources, illegitimate debt and the domination of global finance, and fighting for and building real people based solutions to global warming, to come and join us in the week of action against the G8 here in Japan.

The G8 Action Network invited activists and concerned citizens to Japan and join in our international preparatory meeting from March 7-11, 2008.

Schedule:
March 7, 16:00: Press conference at Parliamentarian building
March 8-9: International Coordination Meeting & G8 Seminar
March 9: evening, Move to Hokkaido by plane
March 10-11: Activities in Hokkaido

Contact: Yasuaki Yamaura, Consumers Union of Japan

Photos (left): Indra Lubis, Via Campesina, Yasuaki Yamaura, CUJ, Lee Chang-geun, Korean Confederation of Trade Unions; (center) Assembly meeting in Tokyo; (right) Kim Ae-hwa, Committee for Asian Women

Other groups that participated included Focus on the Global South, Jubilee South, Migrant Forum in Asia, Attac, and People’s Forum.

Keisuke Amagasa, Namiko Ono and other consumer activists visited the Australian Embassy in Tokyo on February 21, 2008 to deliver Japanese consumers’ request regarding genetically modified (GM) foods.

They asked the Australian government, on a national level, to firmly maintain a strict GM-free policy. Australia has such a valuable ecosystem, which is unparalleled in the world, so GM crops are a real threat to the country’s unique biodiversity. They expressed the request that GM crops should be eliminated, and not accepted.

They also strongly requested that Australia makes sure not to let GM canola to be cultivated now or in the future.

Read the letter of request to Minister for Agriculture, Hon. Tony Burke (pdf):

Please Stop GM Canola Cultivation in Australia

We were very encouraged and pleased recently as we received the news that South Australia decided to keep its GM moratorium. We wish to express our sincere appreciation to South Australia for taking this step. We would like to further ask that the strict GM-free policy is permanently maintained, for the sake of both consumers’ health and the environment. GM crops should be eliminated, and not accepted.

We strongly request that South Australia makes sure not to let GM canola be cultivated in South Australia now or in the future.

To order a set of four postcards, please send 400Yen as a donation to Consumers Union of Japan, along with your name and address (We will not use your address or information for any other purpose).

- The front of each card has space for you to write your message.

- The cards are pre-addressed:

1) “Prime Minister” (Postal code: 100-8914, Tokyo, Japan)

2) “Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry” (Postal code: 100-8901, Tokyo, Japan)

3) “Governor of Aomori Prefecture” (Postal code: 030-8570, Aomori Prefecture, Japan)

4) “Mayor of Rokkasho Village” (Postal code: 039-3212, Aomori Prefecture, Japan)

Please write a message to each of these people.

- Please place a postal stamp on the card and send it asap.

The messages from everyone will help stop operation of the reprocessing plant.

(Photo: Greenpeace Japan)

To protect our bountiful nature, food, and life, let us send a message to oppose the full-scale operation of the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant.

In November 2008, the Spent-Nuclear-Fuel Reprocessing Plant in Rokkasho Village, Aomori Prefecture, Japan, is suposed to start full-scale operations. This reprocessing plant collects spent-nuclear-fuel from nuclear power plants all across Japan. Plutonium and uranium will be extracted from the spent-fuel at this facility. From here, every day, a large quantity of radiation is released into the ocean and the atmosphere.

The radiation released into the ocean accumulates in the fish and seaweed. Radiation emitted into the air spreads to the mountains and fields and falls on agricultural crops. These marine and agricultural products polluted with radiation eventually reach our dining tables, and we take radiation into our bodies through our food.

There are reports that near reprocessing plants in operation in England and France, there is an extremely high incidence of leukemia in children – considered to be caused by radiation.

In the midst of these serious circumstances, the reprocessing plant is well on its way to starting-up operations. If this continues, we face the threat that our bountiful nature will become polluted with radiation and many agricultural producers will no longer be able to farm or fish. This means that we will not be able to obtain food that is safe and gives us peace of mind.

To pass on to the future generations our bountiful nature, and to protect the health of our children and families, let us send a message saying, “We do not want to allow operation of the reprocessing plant!” Let us send a message that expresses our sincere feelings to the national and local governments that are promoting this reprocessing plant.

You can send a postcard from your country, or order message cards in sets of 4 cards from Consumers Union of Japan (Donation: 400Yen for one set). Design by Green Co-op.

- The front of each card has space for you to write your message.

- The cards are pre-addressed:

1) “Prime Minister” (Postal code: 100-8914, Tokyo, Japan)

2) “Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry” (Postal code: 100-8901, Tokyo, Japan)

3) “Governor of Aomori Prefecture” (Postal code: 030-8570, Aomori Prefecture, Japan)

4) “Mayor of Rokkasho Village” (Postal code: 039-3212, Aomori Prefecture, Japan)

Please write a message to each of these people.

- Please place a postal stamp on the card and send it asap.

The messages from everyone will help stop operation of the reprocessing plant.

Let us protect our children’s future together!

For more details: Japan Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center (in English)

Stop GMO The Australian (pdf)

Consumers Union of Japan joined over 120 NGOs, individuals and companies that signed an advertisement published on February 7, 2008 in The Australian.

Stop Genetically Engineered food crops: Australia’s next cane toad

In recent years, a handful of multinational chemical companies have engineered new kinds of crops that could never occur in nature. These GE crops pose unacceptable risks to human health, the environment and the economy.

Against the interests of other states, the Victorian and New South Wales Governments recently announced they will allow their bans on GE food crops to expire end February 2008. The decision from South Australia is also pending. As a result, Australia is now on the brink of losing its green GE free status and economic advantage forever.

This decision will allow the commercial release of GE canola. Like cane toads, the release of GE canola would be irreversible, as GE canola crops can cross state borders and contaminate non-GE canola crops. It will remove choice from farmers who want to remain GE free.

No systems of segregating GE canola crops or contamination control have yet been devised. Therefore no State government should lift its GE ban without the agreement of all that will be affected.

(The entire text is available in the pdf file above)

For more information visit:

http://www.truefood.org.au

http://www.non-gm-farmers.com

http://www.gefreeaustralia.org