January 19, 2023

Akahata 'current' column

The National Federation of Family Farmers' Movement (Nouminren) in this year's convention adopted a declaration supporting agroecology. Nouminren explains that the declaration will be a guide for the farmers' movement to reaffirm the role of Japanese agriculture and restore what have been lost or destroyed by industrial agriculture.

Global warming, climate change, and neoliberalism have been threatening global biodiversity and bringing about a serious food crisis upon the world. As many as 323 million people are said to be unable to eat for a whole day at a time.

Japan imports much of its food from overseas. The country also relies heavily on other countries for seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, and fuel. Their prices have been escalating, and there have been shortages of these products as well.

Nouminren points out that farmers, without access to what is needed for agricultural production, cannot raise crops, and that the agricultural crisis is worsening in parallel with the food crisis.

According to Nouminren, agroecology is a social movement in which farmers explore an agriculture model which can preserve the rich ecosystem and does not deny the value of traditional methods of farming. The progressive farmers' organization states that in order to revive the food and agriculture industries and protect worn-out local communities, cooperation between producers and consumers will be an important key, such as the from-the-farm sales model used by the New Japan Women's Association (Shinfujin).

It is essential to create a major national movement in every corner of Japan in order to dramatically change the present agricultural model which keeps depending on overseas supplies for food.

Past related article:
> Japan should increase its food self-sufficiency rate to contribute to ending world hunger [May 23, 2022]