7th Organic Film Festival - Tokyo - Nov. 23-24, 2013

Via Organic Consumers Union:

The 7th organic film festival will be held in Tokyo on November 23-24, 2013.

This will be a great opportunity to catch up with recent trends and watch documentaries from Japan and abroad. The theme this year is “Holding on to the Soil” to reflect the hardships many farmers are experiencing, with special focus on Okinawa and Fukushima.

Location: Hosei University, Sotobori Campus (between Iidabashi and Ichigaya stations on the Sobu line)

Tickets: 1800 Yen (pre order) 2500 Yen ( at the entrance)

For more information please check the official website (J): http://www.yuki-eiga.com/

World Food Sovereignty Day • Soil and Peace Festival @Hibiya Park, Tokyo - Oct. 20, 2013

Today is the international family farmer movement Via Campesina's World Food Sovereignty Day; and this weekend, Japanese organic family farmers and their supporters will join in a celebration of the best of visionary Japanese (organic, recycling, nuclear-free, GMO-free, fair-trade, Slow Life, satoyama, Tohoku-supporting) culture.

Via the Consumers Union of Japan:

There will be a Soil and Peace Festival in Hibiya Park, Tokyo, on Sunday October 20, 2013. Starting at 10:00 hundreds of farmers and activists and artists will hold a great event until the evening.

A great opportunity to meet your favourite NGOs and learn more about organic food, anti-nuclear campaigns and the future of Japan. Look forward to lots of inspiration! Music by Kato Tokiko and many others throughout the day, starting with a taiko performance by Gocco.

Website with more info (J) here.

First Slow Food International event opens in Asia; Can local, organic farming & food production be revived in South Korea? (90% of its food is imported; mostly from China & the US)

Via Slow Food International:

Just an hour outside of the chaos and pollution of Seoul, the city of Namyangju lies in an area known for its clean water, magnificent natural scenery and the health and longevity of its residents. It is here - where the long history of traditional handicrafts is still practiced by locals and an organic farming movement is growing rapidly - that small-scale producers from across Asia and Oceania have been arriving for AsiO Gusto,  what will be Slow Food’s first international event on the continent.

Asia is a continent where the issues that Slow Food is working on are highly evident: industrialization, monocultures, nutrition security…” said Paolo Di Croce, Secretary General of Slow Food. “South Korea imports 40% of its national dish, kimchi. It’s crazy that even a country with such strong traditions is still following the rules of the global market. Slow Food is less developed here compared to other parts of the world so AsiO Gusto is a great opportunity to bring together these delegates to share knowledge, build friendships and develop an understanding that farmers are facing the same problems everywhere.

---

Reading that South Korea imports more than 40% of its national dish, kimchee, was startling.  Where is most of South Korea's kimchee being made? China.

South Korea imports 90% of its food, much of it from China and the U.S. 

Seoul, the world’s second largest metropolitan area, is dominated by chain stores and franchises.  Seoul's restaurants serve kimchi made in China, vegetables from Australia,  fruit from Pakistan and the US, fish from Norway, rice from China and Thailand, and industrially farmed meat from the US.

Small-scale farmers and food processors are still a huge part of traditional Korean culture and an important part of food production.  The average farm is still between 2 and 5 acres and most food producers are family-run.

However local family farmers and food producers are under threat of "free trade" pacts (including with China) that have threatened their survival.  South Korean food self-sufficiency has dropped to the lowest level in history.  Farmland has dropped to the lowest level since 1970  because Seoul has incorporated vast amounts of farmland into commercial and industrial development projects and recreational “green spaces” for weekend urbanite tourists.  Namyangju, the "organic city," is one of South Korea's green travel destinations.

The Korean organic, slow, family farmer and food producer movement centers on food and cultural sovereignty and the survival of centuries-old food traditions. In parallel with the global movement, the movement is ultimately about democracy, environmental sustainability, simplicity, as well as safe and healthy food production.

---

Background:

" Cooperative Small-Scale Farming Movements Make Strides Around the World"
(Food Tank, April 3, 2013)

The Korean Women Peasants Association (KWPA), a organization of women farmers in South Korea, gained recognition recently when it won the Food Sovereignty Prize in 2012 for its work to promote food sovereignty, defend small-scale Korean farmers, and end violence against women. KWPA created the Sister Gardens initiative, which supports local food production by linking women farmers directly with local consumers. KWPA also began the Native Seed Campaign to safeguard biodiversity within agroecosystems and preserve native seeds.

"Korean Food, Land and Democracy: A Conversation with Anders Riel Müller* (Christine Ahn, March 19, 2013, Korea Policy Institute)

South Korea has been experiencing declining food self sufficiency for the past 20 years, and it has worsened over the past 5-6 years largely due to the new Free Trade Agreements with the United States and European Union. South Korea is also now in negotiations with Australia. These large agricultural exporting nations view South Korea as a major market for their agricultural products.

Korean agriculture is in crisis. First of all 40 percent of the agricultural population is over 60 years old, and average farm household debt has been exceeding annual total income since 2003. They carry a very heavy debt load. And the South Korean government is very limited in terms of what it can do to help farmers because of the restrictions placed by the World Trade Organization (WTO). For example, because South Korea is a party to the WTO, it means that virtually all of the old support programs that once protected farmers have been dismantled. The government is trying new ways to support farmers by helping them convert to organic and by emphasizing the aesthetic value of the rural countryside.

The agricultural sector is in decline. The amount of farmland in use is in decline, as is the land ownership among farmers. More farmers are now farming on rented land—in fact, 50% are now leasing land. Development policy has also changed so that more agricultural land has been opened up for urban and industrial development.

"South Korea's Food Security Alarm" (John Berthelsen, Asia  Sentinel, April 29, 2011)

...South Korea...imports more than 90 percent of its food from overseas, including almost all of its wheat and corn.

The government recently bought more than 325,999 hectares in Mongolia as part of its effort to develop an overseas food base to procure more food resources. That is after the Daewoo chaebol was stymied in its effort in 2008 to lease 1.3 million hectares of Madagascar – almost half the country's arable land -- for 99 years....As many as 60 South Korean companies are involved in farming in 16 countries, harvesting some 87,000 metric tons of grain from 24,000 hectares of farmland, according to Anders Riel Muller, a Research Fellow at the Institute for Food and Development Policy, USA...

... Samsung Economic Research Institute... issued a 16-page report on food security. The report, titled New Food Strategies in the Age of Global Food Crises...advocates that "it is necessary to secure foreign bases for food production through overseas agricultural development," providing comprehensive support for domestic firms striving to build food production bases abroad," and pay for it through overseas agricultural development funds. Among other things, the report advocates that the government draw up a roadmap for agricultural cooperation to develop food resources in the starvation-ridden North Korea "through inter-Korean agricultural cooperation is useful in the context of building South Korea's overseas food base, while at the same time preparing for surging food demand upon unification."

Food stability in South Korea has experienced a continuous decline, caused by rapidly increased grain price volatility and intensified import source concentration as the western countries, particularly the United States and the European Union, devote more and more of their corn production to biofuels. It is estimated that 35 percent of corn production is now going into biofuels. In addition, the report says, "food safety fell to its lowest level in 2008...

The report notes with something akin to alarm that the international grain market "is subject to an oligopoly of the four major global grain conglomerates: Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, LDC, and Bunge," which have the power not only to perform grain trading functions but to "affect government policy with respect to international trade and agricultural markets using their massive capabilities to obtain information worldwide. South Korea imports 80 percent of its gran through the four. The four giants, the report continues, "exercise tremendous leverage over the worldwide food industry. Business for grain majors has expanded beyond traditional trading of crops to seeds, fertilizers, food and food processing, finance, and bio-energy production. At times, the four grain majors have encroached on consumer welfare by exerting their influence on agricultural producers, or by creating an oligopoly regime."

As food imports have increased, so has anxiety over agricultural product safety, the report notes, with "spiraling increases in the share of GMO food imports, which have risen from about 30 percent to over 50 percent in 2008, "posing a greater threat to food safety."

...South Korea's big problem, according to Anders Muller, is partly to history, in which Japanese colonizers'only interest was to convert Korea in to a supplier of food and other products to fuel their imperial ambitions. In doing so, the Japanese administrators allied themselves with the ruling landlord elite. By the 1920s, the majority of peasants in Korea had been reduced to tenant farmers delivering up to 50 percent of their harvests in taxes."

South Korea, Muller writes, "has historically shown little interest in its agricultural sector throughout the post Korean War period. The rural population and agriculture was primarily regarded as a source of cheap food and cheap labor for the country's dizzying industrial development." Agricultural investment dried up as successive dictators like Park Hung Hee neglected the countryside for industrialization...

"South Korean Food Imports At 80-90%" (Martin Frid, Kurashi, Oct. 6, 2011)

I was rather shocked to learn that South Korea imports almost all its food from China and the United States. Nearly 90% is imported, according to Asian Sentinel - and that includes almost all its wheat and corn, quoting a Samsung report from SERI World. Some 16 countries supply the country with other food items...

Food Inc. Director Robert Kenner To Visit Tokyo (May 19 & 21) & Osaka (May 22)

Via  the Consumers Union of Japan:

CUJ is glad to be able to invite US documentary director Robert Kenner to Japan. His film Food Inc. is a great exposure of the way the food industry and especially Monsanto have hijacked farming and food processing, creating a situation where it is almost impossible for consumers to know what we are eating. While the focus is on the US agribusiness, it also applies to practices in many other countries, and the frequent abuse against farmers, food factory workers, animals and the biodiversity on our planet.

Robert Kenner is an Emmy-Award winning film maker. He will participate at three screening events and give talks while in Japan. Everyone is welcome!

Tokyo: May 19 (Sat) 13:30-18:00

Tokyo Women’s Plaza (Omotesando station)

http://www.tokyo-womens-plaza.metro.tokyo.jp/

Entrance Fee: 1,000 Yen

Tokyo: May 21 (Mon) 14:00-16:00

House of Representatives 2nd Bldg, Multi-purpose Hall (1st Floor)

(衆議院第2議員会館 1階 多目的ホール)

Entrance Fee: Free

Osaka: May 22 (Tue) 13:30-17:30

Osaka International House Center

http://www.ih-osaka.or.jp/english/

Entrance Fee: 1,000 Yen

More on Food Inc. from the film's website:

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

Vandana Shiva on industrial agriculture's use of war chemicals and food sovereignty versus the new colonialism

This is an excerpt of Vandana Shiva's talk about the role of war chemicals (pesticides, fertilizers) in industrial agriculture's new colonization in her talk on food and seed sovereignty at the International Meeting on Resisting Hegemony held 2-5 August 2010 in Penang, Malaysia.

I'm going to talk about the work I've been doing for the last 30 years on issues of biodiversity, food, and agriculture, largely because of the recognition this is the cutting edge of the new colonization and the new imperialism...

For me, 1984 was significant because of two major events, both very tragic. One was June 4, when the Sikh shrine, the Golden Temple, was invaded by the Indian Army, largely because of the unrest and the extremism that had built up in Punjab, and the extremists were hiding in the Golden Temple. And, later that year, we had the Bhopal tragedy where the pesticide plant leaked and killed 3,000 people in one night. 25,000 since then...

Bhopal is historically a watershed in terms of the structures. Part of it involves "shedding," First shedding hazards and then shedding liabilities related to hazards. Bhopal is a watershed where sacrificing the rights of people in the time of industrial genocide starts...

Someone mentioned Lawrence Summers who is currently Obama's chief economic advisor. But I first came across Lawrence Summers in 1992 when he was the chief economist of the World Bank because he wrote a memo saying it makes good economic sense to move pollution and hazards to developing countries. First because it's cheaper to find labor and therefore costs come down. And when people fall ill, it's cheaper. And when people die, it's cheaper, because their lives are worth less. So that's 3/5 of a human being on a scale issue. This continues in the contemporary calculus of what is a life worth.

Because of this series of violent episodes, I decided to start looking at what is really happening to agriculture....

Because of this series of these very violent episodes, I decided to start looking at what is really happening to agriculture. And in those days, I was associated with the peace and global transformation program that the CSDS that used to have...I decided to study what happened to Punjab...I was young, an innocent physicist with no idea of what was going on in agriculture...

A series of things I learned during that study. First, that agriculture had become the place to extend the war economy. Every input in agriculture is a war chemical. Every agrichemical is a war chemical. Herbicides were used in Vietnam. Pesticides were used to kill people which is why Bhopal killed people. Fertilizers came out of explosives factories...

The other day I was at some gathering and there was someone who is very close to the U.S. security establishment and they said Iraq was easy because the weapons were very evident. The weapons had been bought on global markets. Afghanistan is tough because the weapons are fertilizer bombs made from the fertilizer the U.S. distributed. So this is, in fact, the fertilizer coming back to its original purpose. And of course, it's not just that these are just war chemicals extending into agriculture.

But bringing them into agriculture is very much part of the new imperialism. The common narrative of the Green Revolution is India chose it. The reality of it is that the defense labs of the U.S. started to work in the '40's on how do you retool these chemicals for agriculture...So you had to change the plants to adapt to the chemicals...

Rather than calling them varieties bred for chemicals, they were now called "high-yielding" varieties. In fact, they were even called "miracle seeds." And the first 12 people they trained were called...the "wheat apostles" introducing these new seeds...

In the colonization through agriculture, land was emptied of its biodiversity...

This whole structure only worked because when these varieties were ready, the U.S. government was waiting for an opportunity to push them. And it was a drought that took place in 1965 that provided that opportunity because the need for additional imports became the time for imposing conditionalities: "We won't send you wheat unless you change our agriculture." Our prime minister at that time said "no." He died soon after, in Tashkent, under very mysterious conditions. And the conditions continued. The two foundations, the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford and the World Bank joined hands to create this package of conditionalities...

You couldn't borrow unless you proved you had taken money and subsidies for chemicals. You couldn't get any benefits from any government program unless you showed you were planting the new seeds. The Green Revolution didn't spread because of the choice farmers were making, but because of conditionalities...

A lot of my work in the Punjab study showed that actually food production went down. Rice and wheat production went up, but only because you displaced all the other crops. In an Indian diet, you need your pulses, your oil seeds, lots of vegetables. All of that disappeared. Now you had a monoculture...

We had a huge decline in pulses, the basic protein for a vegetarian diet. Quite clearly, the West never understood because they never had pulses in their diet...

Vandana Shiva urges "Time to End War on the Earth" in Sydney Peace Prize speech

Dr. Vandana Shiva, recipient of this year's Sydney Peace Prize, urged the cessation of war on the earth (in the form of unsustainable environmentally destructive genetically modified, pesticide-intensive industrial agriculture); the end to the commodification of every aspect of life; and the promotion of "Earth Democracy" in her Nov. 5 acceptance speech:

When we think of wars in our times, our minds turn to Iraq and Afghanistan. But the bigger war is the war against the planet. This war has its roots in an economy that fails to respect ecological and ethical limits - limits to inequality, limits to injustice, limits to greed and economic concentration.

A handful of corporations and of powerful countries seeks to control the earth's resources and transform the planet into a supermarket in which everything is for sale. They want to sell our water, genes, cells, organs, knowledge, cultures and future.

The continuing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and onwards are not only about "blood for oil."  As they unfold, we will see that they are about blood for food, blood for genes and biodiversity and blood for water.

The war mentality underlying military-industrial agriculture is evident from the names of Monsanto's herbicides - ''Round-Up'', ''Machete'', ''Lasso''. American Home Products, which has merged with Monsanto, gives its herbicides similarly aggressive names, including ''Pentagon'' and ''Squadron''. This is the language of war. Sustainability is based on peace with the earth.

The war against the earth begins in the mind. Violent thoughts shape violent actions. Violent categories construct violent tools. And nowhere is this more vivid than in the metaphors and methods on which industrial, agricultural and food production is based. Factories that produced poisons and explosives to kill people during wars were transformed into factories producing agri-chemicals after the wars.

The year 1984 woke me up to the fact that something was terribly wrong with the way food was produced. With the violence in Punjab and the disaster in Bhopal, agriculture looked like war. That is when I wrote The Violence of the Green Revolution and why I started Navdanya as a movement for an agriculture free of poisons and toxics.

Pesticides, which started as war chemicals, have failed to control pests. Genetic engineering was supposed to provide an alternative to toxic chemicals. Instead, it has led to increased use of pesticides and herbicides and unleashed a war against farmers...

Making peace with the earth was always an ethical and ecological imperative. It has now become a survival imperative for our species.

Violence to the soil, to biodiversity, to water, to atmosphere, to farms and farmers produces a warlike food system that is unable to feed people. One billion people are hungry. Two billion suffer food-related diseases - obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cancers.

There are three levels of violence involved in non-sustainable development. The first is the violence against the earth, which is expressed as the ecological crisis. The second is the violence against people, which is expressed as poverty, destitution and displacement. The third is the violence of war and conflict, as the powerful reach for the resources that lie in other communities and countries for their limitless appetites...

The elevation of the domain of the market, and money as man-made capital, to the position of the highest organising principle for societies and the only measure of our well-being has led to the undermining of the processes that maintain and sustain life in nature and society.

The richer we get, the poorer we become ecologically and culturally. The growth of affluence, measured in money, is leading to a growth in poverty at the material, cultural, ecological and spiritual levels.

The real currency of life is life itself and this view raises questions: how do we look at ourselves in this world? What are humans for? And are we merely a money-making and resource-guzzling machine? Or do we have a higher purpose, a higher end?

I believe that ''earth democracy'' enables us to envision and create living democracies based on the intrinsic worth of all species, all peoples, all cultures - a just and equal sharing of this earth's vital resources, and sharing the decisions about the use of the earth's resources...

We have to make a choice. Will we obey the market laws of corporate greed or Gaia's laws for maintenance of the earth's ecosystems and the diversity of its beings?

People's need for food and water can be met only if nature's capacity to provide food and water is protected. Dead soils and dead rivers cannot give food and water.

Defending the rights of Mother Earth is therefore the most important human rights and social justice struggle. It is the broadest peace movement of our times.

Find out more about Dr. Shiva's book, Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace here at South End Press.

In "The Corporate Killing Fields" published at Asian Age in July of this year, Dr. Shiva reveals that pesticides kill 220,000 people every year and shows that " ecologically organic agriculture produces more food and better food at lower cost than either chemical agriculture or GMOs."

Read more about Navdanya, a network of seed keepers and organic producers spread across 16 states in India, here.

See Sarah Ruth van Gelder's great 2002 interview with Dr. Shiva about the "earth democracy" at Yes! Magazine:

There is, I think, a spontaneous resurgence of thinking that centers on protection of life, celebrating life, enjoying life as both our highest duty and our most powerful form of resistance...

Eric Darier at Undercover COP: "GMOs: Historic agreement but a small step for liability"

Eric Darier of Greenpeace Canada blogging from Nagoya at Undercover COP: Dispatches from the Convention on Biological Diversity negotiations on the GMO liability agreement agreed upon in Nagoya:

"GMOs: Historic agreement but a small step for liability"

After over 6 years of negotiations, the international community finally agreed last night in Japan to put in place a liability and redress regime in case of contamination caused by genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This agreement that will be known as the ‘Nagoya Kuala Lumpur Supplemental Protocol on Liability and redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety’ is not a strict international liability instrument with a backup fund as Greenpeace advocated.

However, this agreement will enable countries to adopt and implement their own liability provisions and redress legislation and financial security while offering them some protection against WTO legal challenges about obstacles to trade.

The agreement will apply to damages causes directly by GMOs like genetic contamination. However, by keeping open the causality chain link between the damage and the GMO in question, it also includes products of GMOs which is a good element for an effective and meaningful liability regime.

During the negotiation, Greenpeace has consistently been pushing for a supplementary fund, paid for by a levy on GE imports in case of damages not covered by standard liability and redress. Although this option had been rejected at a previous meeting, the agreement actually keeps open possible future measures to be considered by the Protocol.

Preparatory talks started last Wednesday, Oct. 6, in Nagoya, on an international accord on compensation for damage caused by GMO (genetically modified) crops to biodiversity and human health.

The talks preceded the fifth meeting of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety in Nagoya from Oct. 11 to 15, which will seek to adopt the accord as a supplement to the protocol under the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The accord aims to enable states to order operators who bring in damage-causing genetically modified living organisms to take necessary restorative measures.

While countries have agreed on an overall framework of the accord, crucial issues remain unresolved as Darier points out: i.e., a compensation fund that would put some teeth into the agreement.

Ralph Nader's tribute to consumer movement advocate Katsuko Nomura

Katsuko Nomura, a pioneer in Japan's NGO and consumer movements, helped establish Consumer's Union of Japan and the Information Center for Public Citizens.

According to the World People's Blog, during a visit to the US in 1970, Katsuko was influenced by American consumer advocate Ralph Nader:

From him, she learned the need for a consumers’ movement operating on both macro and global scales. Consequently, in 1975, she founded the Overseas Citizens’ Activities Information Center to provide information about citizens and consumers movements overseas, and to encourage her constituents to see and understand the connections between their own struggles and those of others globally.

Although she advocated for Japanese consumers’ rights, Katsuko also recognized the contradiction of their position in the world when she became very aware of Japan’s relationship to the Third World. She, therefore, advocated strongly against what Ralph Nader terms ‘violence of complicity’ and ‘violence of silence’.

She wrote: “What is lacking most in Japan’s consumer movement is a consciousness of the possibility of consumers being victims within Japan while being victimizers of the Third World”.

The American consumer champion wrote this wonderful tribute to his Japanese counterpart:

"Katsuko Nomura: Consumer Champion"

by Ralph Nader

Katsuko Nomura—a builder of consumer, labor, cooperative and women’s rights groups for over 55 years in Japan—passed away this month at the age of 99. She was one of the most remarkable civic leaders anywhere in the world. With her range of activities, she could be called a world citizen.

To recognize her indomitable spirit and humanity, one has to understand the conditions with which she had to contend. Born in 1910 in Kyoto, she lost her husband and many relatives and friends during World War II. By August 1945, her country was reduced to rubble. Destitution, hunger, homelessness, inflation were daily experiences.

Mrs. Nomura witnessed crises everywhere, but she also saw vast opportunities for building a just and democratic society. This was no small feat in a male-dominated society under U.S. military occupation.

She started her dynamic career building consumer cooperatives—a banding together that then was critical for families facing drastic shortages of life’s necessities. She took her experience and legislative success with the Cooperative League of Japan to become a founder of the Japan Housewives’ Association whose mass boycotts and marches challenged Japanese companies accustomed to very little government regulation.

During these struggles, she forged a unitary approach to those kept powerless in the economy—organizing consumers, workers and small businesses around their common interests. She became a strong voice, especially for women, in the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan and helped found the Consumers’ Union of Japan, which she directed for over a decade.

All these formal associations cannot do credit to watching her in action. Well into her eighties, she aroused audiences of younger Japanese activists and prodded them to raise expectations for themselves as change-agents. She was often the toughest person at any gathering.

A devourer of information, a prodigious translator into Japanese of what U.S. consumer groups were reporting and doing, she fought for economic, health and safety advances in Japan by publicizing better practices she discovered in other countries.

Neither U.S. food exports to Japan of dubious safety nor the injustices inflicted on less developed countries by Japanese multinationals escaped her pointed criticism and agendas for action.

Of course, the mix of political, economic and cultural factors are quire different in Japan as compared with the U.S., where citizen and labor groups focus heavily on regulatory and judicial tools to achieve their goals. In Japan, more nuanced informal pressures, demands and shame can be used, though the country is moving toward more reliance on agencies and courts.

In 1990, with considerably less than half the population of the U.S., there were 31 national consumer organizations with a combined membership of over eleven million people and 1,267 consumer cooperatives serving roughly 35 million Japanese. Today, with over 300 million people, the comparative U.S. membership figures may not reach that level.

On the occasion of the celebration of Mrs. Nomura’s 88th birthday, I wrote the following words:

“An ancient Greek philosopher said that ‘character is destiny.’ Mrs. Nomura’s life of dedication to the pursuit of justice, to the building of a deeper democracy reflects her many skills but above all her character.

“Her character is a finely textured collection of traits, beyond honesty, which are attentive to the many obstacles, problems and power centers which she and her associates have had to confront. She is always focused on the ultimate objectives while paying close scrutiny to the many paths that must be traveled to reach these objectives. She transcends discouragement and fatigue. She deploys a limitless ability to absorb information, to digest it into many strands for distribution to others. She needs no motivation because she possesses a public philosophy that has given her the Motivator’s role.

“This public philosophy produces a consistency over the years—so much so that she is still the most concrete, grass roots organizer among citizen activists half her age or less. She sees through politicians or anyone who displays insincerity, deception or superficial rhetoric.”

She was nominated as one of “1000 women” for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. But Mrs. Nomura was never interested in honors and resolutions, not to mention endless meetings without action, bureaucratic pomposity or make-work. She always had her focus on results, on helping those in need confront the abuses of the corporate powers.

In her later years, she wanted to write an autobiography. But in failing health, she used her time fighting for rights instead of writing her own story so that future generations could stand on her shoulders and spirit, moving forward.

Perhaps, her friends and admirers can produce a biography and a documentary on her life—one that teaches so well the wisdom of the Chinese saying that “to know and not to do is not to know.”

As she advanced in years, Mrs. Nomura would call herself “an old woman” followed by a short, wistful laugh. It was as if she regretted not having more time to put more forces into motion.

Such regret was not unfounded. A wise person once said that “the only true aging is the erosion of one’s ideals.” Mrs. Nomura was always the most curious, creative and youngest of leaders in this respect, making the most out of small budgets.

May her legacy be a source of self-renewing energy for many seekers of justice in this tormented world of ours. For she was the essence of resilient self-renewal.

"Peaceful New Earth Celebration" in Tokyo spotlights Okinawa, indigenous cultures, sustainability, & global networking

This past Sunday afternoon, the normally boisterous outdoor stage area in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park was silent except for the sound of a Native American flute. The slow, penetrating melody was soon joined by rhythmic drumming and chanting, which gradually rose to an energetic crescendo. The musicians—all Japanese people with intimate connections to North American indigenous cultures—were purifying the space with a Lakota Sun Dance ritual in preparation for the day’s event: Peaceful New Earth Celebration.

Supported by Peace Not War Japan and Spring Love Harukaze, the celebration was the inaugural event for the Neo Ryuku Arc Network. The organization was recently formed in response to the critical issue of the Japanese and U.S. governments declaring plans to construct military facilities in Okinawa and Tokunoshima—both part of the Ryukyu archipelago—despite the strong objections of local citizens. The day’s events included a morning peace parade through Tokyo’s busy Shibuya district, followed by a lineup in the park of talented musical performers and talk sessions on militarism and peace-related issues.

Sun Dance ceremony performers Arakawa Shizuka, who lived among the Lakota and married a medicine man, and Nonaka Katsumi, who has close connections with the Hopi in Black Mesa, Arizona

“The purpose of the Sun Dance is to give thanks to the sun and the universe, and to pray that all living beings may live together in peace,” explained performer Arai Norihito. An ecologist, Arai was invited to join the Lakota tribe as a family member following a chance encounter in South Dakota, United States where members heard him singing. “Since the Sun Dance is traditionally performed during the summer solstice, the timing could not have been more perfect to coincide with this event’s call for peaceful relations in Okinawa, Japan, the Asia-Pacific, the United States, and elsewhere.”

“My own roots are from Jewish settlers who came to Japan, which is, in fact, not at all a homogenous country, as some would claim,” Arai remarked following the ceremony. “I believe that this diversity represents the potential for us all to unite together in peace—both within Japan and beyond.” Arai's own organization, Peace Seed, promotes seed-saving and biodiversity programs, and also supports sustainable community gardening on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota through its "Lakota Peace Garden" project.

Peace Seed's Arai Norihito

"Recent events have made it clear that anyone could be targeted by the U.S. military at any time," commented Neo Ryuku Arc Network organizer Akazaki Hitomi following the ceremony. "Standing up to the United States government is no small undertaking, and so we must put our strengths together with other peace movements overseas. In doing so, we must use the positive energy of the indigenous cultures from our islands—where we have lived in harmony with nature for centuries—to help us ensure a peaceful future.”

Akazaki Hitomi

Peace Not War Japan’s Fukui Hiroshi spoke next, explaining the reasoning for the festival’s timing:

Humanity is now at an urgent crossroads: Will we continue to relate to each other within the framework of militarism, or will we make the shift to more sustainable, ecological, and peaceful ways of living?

The situation in Okinawa is at the center of this question, and it is therefore critical that we utilize our democratic rights at this time to continue speaking out for peace.

We must also reach beyond the limitations of the mass media to forge connections with peace movements in places such as Guam and Hawaii, where similar struggles against U.S. military bases are also taking place.

After a spirited performance from roots reggae singer Ailie and Native American flautist Masago Hideaki, seasoned activist Sakata Masako from the Kenju no kai (an organization to protect Mt. Takao) gave an impassioned, heartfelt speech drawing connections between the anti- military base struggle and her own lifework to save the mountain (located an hour from Tokyo) from highway tunnel construction.

Ailie, Masago Hideaki,and a belly dance performer

“When governmental ministries prioritize the perceived need for things like military bases and highways over the lives that stand to be annihilated as a result, it shows how far they have become disconnected from the existence of life itself,” she asserted. “Military bases are used for the purpose of war, which translates into the reality of wounded and maimed children in other lands—just as tunnels through mountains spell death for countless living beings. We must never forget this fundamental truth.”

“As the host nation for the COP10 conference coming up in October, it is an absolute contradiction that Japan has plans to destroy the biodiversity existing in places like Henoko and Mt. Takao,” she concluded. “This represents an enormous opportunity for our movements to take a giant step forward.”

Sakata was then joined onstage by two representatives from Yuntaku Takae, a Tokyo-based group offering support to the sit-in movement to stop the construction of U.S. military helipads near Takae Village in Okinawa’s Yanbaru “Broccoli” Forest.

“In an attempt to spread fear within our movement, the government sued members of our nonviolent sit-in protest movement—including an eight year-old child and the spouse of a protester, who was not even on the scene at the time—and forbid us from doing any further activism or blogging,” explained one of the speakers. “We have managed to continue our sit-in, but since the government is threatening to resume their watch over our actions beginning in July, we need all the assistance we can get. We gratefully welcome supporters to Takae to come join our movement.”


Sakata Masako (center) with Yuntaku Takae representatives (photo left) Information from the struggle to protect Takae Village (above)

Next onstage was Tei Kazuma, a singer/songwriter from Tokunoshima Island. Introducing his opening number, “Hito no hatake” (“Peoples’ Farms”), he explained, “I wrote this piece as a tribute to people whose farms have been in their families for generations—including my own—but are now being threatened with destruction by U.S. military facility construction plans.” A video of Tei performing the song, which includes footage from protest demonstrations on Tokunoshima and stunning scenery from the island, may be viewed here.

Tei Kazuma

Tei’s performance was followed by a talk on the military base issue from an ecological perspective given by Hoshikawa Jun, the director of Greenpeace Japan. “The reasoning behind recent lawsuits has held that military base construction—with all of its resulting destruction to the dugong and the region's biodiversity—would never be allowed in the United States, and so by the same logic, it most certainly should not be permitted in Okinawa either,” he commented. He also explained the activities of the Japan-US Citizens for Okinawa Network (JUCON), of which he is a member. JUCON's counterpart in the U.S., Network for Okinawa, recently released an official statement on the U.S. military base relocation issue that may be read here.

Hoshikawa, who was born in Tokyo but identifies as a Ryukyu islander after having spent more than thirty years living in the region, has a fascinating background as a translator and writer on topics such as peace and Native American spirituality. “View from Two Ground Zeros”, his deeply thought-provoking 2004 piece on the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and anti-American sentiment, may be read on truthout.org here.

Hoshikawa Jun (right), who was joined onstage by Arakawa Shizuka and Arai Norihito

The next talk session, “Okinawa, Gaza and Militarism,” featured journalists May Shigenobu and Shiva Rei, both of whose work has focused closely on Palestinian-related issues. Both were invited to speak at the event in light of the recent deadly attack by the Israeli military on the Freedom Flotilla humanitarian aid ship traveling to Gaza.

"The recent attack represents only the surface level of much deeper lying issues represented by Gaza and the Palestinian occupation itself, which must continue to be addressed," explained Shigenobu. “We must also understand the occupation as a fundamental violation of human rights. Would we tolerate the idea of Tokyo being put under lockdown, with no food or supplies being allowed inside? If people can imagine this happening to themselves, they will understand the urgent need to act against the injustices that are now being committed against Palestinians.”

Shiva Rei commented next on the similarities between the Okinawan and the Palestinian experience. “While the day-to-day realities are obviously extremely different, comparisons may be drawn simply with regard to the shared status of living under occupation in a militarized region,” he explained. “We must go back in history and look at how both the Ryukyu people and the Palestinians have been oppressed by their occupiers in the process of establishing these systematized inequalities.”

“It is obvious that that the U.S. remains in Okinawa not because its military bases are necessary, but because it is such a cozy operation for the U.S., with Japan heavily subsidizing its presence,” continued Shigenobu. “The fear-based policy that the U.S. government has perpetuated since 9-11 has enabled it to engage in massive military spending, while also painting North Korea as a threat. The real truth, however, is that the U.S—with its endless appetite for wars and its history as the only nation on earth to have used the atomic bomb—is the country that people should be afraid of.”

Shiva Rei and May Shigenobu

The event included several more performances, including an unscheduled reading of US for Okinawa member Rob Pott’s catchy, piercingly worded hip-hop poem “Okinawa o shiranai” ("Unknown Okinawa"), before finishing with two more Ryukyu-themed musical acts. Asazaki Ikue, a traditional folk artist from Amami-Oshima island, first sang a lineup of gorgeous, ethereal, several centuries-old songs that she herself has described in past interviews as “trance-like” and “touching us in a place so deep that only our souls can remember.”

Asazaki Ikue

The event concluded with a spirited performance from Japanese chindon (street performance) band Jintaramuta, who were joined for the final lineup by the Shisas (from “shisa”, the mythological Ryukyu lion-dog), including a folk song that was written by someone whose entire family had been killed in the Battle of Okinawa.

Jintaramuta and Shisas

Peace Not War Japan’s Hiroshi Fukui reminded attendees that with constitutional elections coming up on July 11th, people have an opportunity to choose politicians who will implement the ideals of peace and sustainability that underscored the day’s event. “This is our democratic right—and we have the responsibility to exercise it.”

The event finished with video messages from Okinawan singer and popular peace icon Kina Shoukichi, as well as Ginowan City Mayor Iha Youichi and several mayors from towns on Tokunoshima Island. A powerful message of solidarity was also read onstage that had been received from Hawaii activist Kyle Kajihiro on the occasion of the recent Spring Love Harukaze event , underscoring the network's commitment to collaborating with peace networks overseas.

Peaceful New Earth Celebration was followed on hundreds of Twitter reports throughout the day, and was also recorded and broadcast live on UStream--reportedly being Sunday’s top watched program in all of Japan.. The stream is available here.

The Neo Ryuku Arc Network is planning several upcoming events, including one in Tokyo to coincide with the Peace Music Festa to be held in Henokohama, Okinawa this coming October. Watch for details!

US for Okinawa's Rob Pott performing “Okinawa o shiranai”

Masayan, whose traveling shop features his own handmade crafts using all natural materials, such as bracelets using woven grass, natural dyes of persimmon and indigo, and hand-picked mountain seeds

- Text and photos by Kimberly Hughes

Anna Lappé on healing our planet and the conversion to a climate-friendly food system

Anna Lappé, daughter of Frances Moore Lappé, author of the ground-breaking 1971 Diet for a Small Planet reveals more about the "power of food to heal our communities, our countries, and our planet" in her new book, Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do about It .

Lappé points out that the unsustainable multinational industrial food industry (dependent on fossil fuels; toxic chemical pesticides and fertilizers) is responsible for as much as 1/3 of all greenhouse gases.

However, around the world, small farmers and their supporters are resurrecting traditional and creating new forms of sustainable agriculture that reverence our planet and life. This is a lifestyle that can cool and heal our planet.

In her book, Lappe spotlights people working for sustainability in Korea and China, as well as Mali and the U.S.

Head's Up: Obama appoints Pesticide Lobbyist as USTR Chief Ag Negotiator--disappointing fair trade, organic & sustainability advocates worldwide

Disappointing millions of fair trade, organic, anti-GMO and sustainability advocates in the U.S. and worldwide, President Obama appointed Islam Siddiqui as the Chief Agricultural Negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Siddiqui was one of 15 people Obama recess-appointed to government posts last weekend to bypass Senate approval hearings.

More than 80 environmental, small-farm and consumer groups opposed the GMO advocate's Senate confirmation. Siddiqui was vice president for agricultural biotechnology and trade for CropLife America, a trade group of biotech and pesticide companies, including Monsanto. CropLife fought popular initiatives seeking to ban GMO food in California--claiming that pesticides positively impact endangered species. CropLife also lobbied the Bush administration for human and child testing of pesticides, and wrote a letter to Michelle Obama urging her to use pesticides in the organic garden at the White House.

Siddiqui also worked for the Clinton Administration at U.S. Department of Agriculture as Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, Senior Trade Advisor to Secretary Dan Glickman and Deputy Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs.

Paula Crossfield at Civil Eats covers the story in "Pesticide Lobbyist Gets Posted as Chief Agricultural Negotiator." More at a great organic blog, Living Maxwell.

What does this mean for Japan and the rest of Asia?

It means that the USTR will be pushing GMO, non-organic, unsustainable practices (on behalf of industries)--as it did under the Bush administration. Asia is a region where governments have more respect for citizen concerns about the health risks of GMO (with notable exceptions like China's recent acceptance of GMO rice and India's acceptance of GMO cotton). The Japanese government has particularly listened to citizens' voices on this matter.

More than ever, grassroots organizations and consumers are going to have to encourage and support government efforts to maintain health and consumer standards that the USTR may falsely label "trade barriers."

Vandana Shiva: GMO crops "suicidal" compared to native crops adapted to flood & drought--"Resilience is built through diversity"

GMO companies have pushed their way into India, persuading small farmers to purchase expensive GMO seeds on borrowed money. Many of these farmers have committed suicide after the promises of better cotton yields turned out to be false hype--poor or bad GMO crop yields resulted in insufficient income to pay back their debts.

In February, India's government imposed a moratorium on the use of a GMO eggplant because of safety concerns.

In a recent interview with Reuters, Indian environmentalist and GMO-free advocate Vandana Shiva, warned that the use of genetically modified crops is "suicidal" because they, unlike native and normal crops, cannot adapt to flooding and drought:

"The (GM) system is more about companies making money from farmers than food security..."

Plenty of drought- and flood-resistant traditional crop varieties already exist and simply need to be brought back to market, supporters of traditional farming say.

Shiva said India has hundreds of varieties of rice, and many that show resistance to flooding, drought and saltwater are now being carefully bred at Indian research institutes to increase yields and are then re-released to farmers.

In India's northeast Assam province, where fields have been flooded for weeks after intense rains, demand has surged for two rice varieties that can survive weeks under water and also produce well even in dry conditions.

Planting a broader variety of crop strains - rather than a couple of GM varieties - should help protect the world food supply and insure it against emerging climate threats, including an expanding range of crop pests.

While a pest might decimate some varieties of crops, it is unlikely it could destroy a wide range of varieties, she said.

"Resilience is built through diversity," Shiva said.

Keeping small farmers on their land is also key, she said, because small farmers are more productive per acre than big-scale growers, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation's figures.

"The majority of people in the world are still farming on small farms," she said. "If we're addressing food security we'd better enhance the security of small farms."