Open letter: Our demands regarding mad cow disease in Brazil To: Agriculture Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi From: Food Safety Citizens’ Watch January 9, 2013 Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) announced on December 8, 2012 on its homepage that beef from Brazil was infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and that import of beef products from Brazil were banned from that same day. The following are problems regarding the slow response which we would like MAFF’s Risk Management Agency to reply to before January 21, 2013. 1) Why was the news about the Brazilian cow that died from BSE in December 2010 (at age 13 years) not announced until…
After the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: The Roles of Consumers and Farmers
Symposium: What Can We Eat? Farmers and Consumers Reaching Out to Each Other The Three Mile Island nuclear accident that took place in the United States on March 28, 1979 had some impact on Japan and influenced the anti-nuclear movement here, especially in areas with nuclear power plant construction sites. Media, however, continued to treat nuclear issues only as regional issues, and did not give much attention to the overall, nationwide concerns. The April 26, 1986 disaster at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union was an even bigger shock for Japan. The radioactive clouds reached the country and caused pollution of Japanese agricultural products. Contaminated food is a particularly serious…
Proposal for a Basic Law to Abandon Nuclear Power!
Action for an election to get rid of nuclear power reactors: How you can participate It is time for another general election in Japan. Let’s turn this into an “Abandon Nuclear Power Election” and spread the message about the election candidates and their views about nuclear power. You can participate by asking the candidate on your town to approve a Proposal for a Basic Law to Abandon Nuclear Power and help us release their reply. In August, 2012, Nobel literature laureate Oe Kenzaburo and others launched a nationwide network seeking the abolition of nuclear plants in Japan. Consumers Union of Japan also joined this network together with many civil society…
Highlights From The Negotiations In Hyderabad About Biological Diversity
Updates about GMOs from the Convention of Biological Diversity It is not always easy to follow the details of the discussions and negotiations of international agreements… Media pays scant attention or ignores important concerns. Governments provide a massive amount of information but it is not easy to find or digest. Fortunately, NGOs are usually present both in the conference hall and in the corridors. For the current round of negotiations in Hyderabad, India, groups like CBD Alliance publish a newsletter called ECO with easy-to-understand updates. ECO MOP6 ECO COP11 Here are some highlights: For the initial meeting, MOP6, many worried that the so-called Roadmap about genetically modified organisms would not…
Stop TPP Action/Occupy Monsanto
On the first Tuesday of every month, demonstrations will be held in front of the Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Tokyo. Together we can stop the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)! Consumers Union of Japan has joined together with other organizations to strongly voice our opposition to TPP. Starting in August, 2012, a new campaign strategy was initiated as we met in front of the Prime Minister’s Official Residence in central Tokyo under the theme of stopping the TPP. Ordinary citizens who are opposed to TPP joined elected Parliament members, representatives from local municipalities, self-governing bodies, labour unions and farmers’ organizations. Still, Prime Minister Noda and some parts of the government…