Japan : youth activists organize a radio program on World Food day
(Tokyo, October 16) Some members of NOUMINREN youth with non-farmer local youth activists organize an internet radio on Wednesdays (twice a month) inviting a new guest each time. The name of the radio is “Chihouhakkutsu Radio” meaning “local treasure hunting radio.” We do not station in one place, but everybody participate from their house through Skype broadcasting through Ustream. The objective of our radio is to know and support local youth activists who do not have youth friends around in their region.
On the 16th of October, a female youth farmer from Nagano prefecture and a male youth farmer from Aichi prefecture and three non-farmers participated in the radio. On the radio, they introduced that October the 16th is World Food Day and it is celebrated in the world.
They then started discussing about the theme of 2013: “Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition.” One person mentioned that Japan import about 58million tons every year, but at the same time Japan dump about 19.4million tons of food every year. The total amount of food aid in the world is said to be about 6 million tons, so Japan is wasting 3 times more than the world food aid. They then realize how their national consumption system affects the world food situation and understood the importance of having a time to think about food and the World Food Day given theme in global scale. To counter the issue, they concluded that people need to appreciate food more and in oder to do so, the people need to see what it is like to produce food. In other words, they realize the importance of creating spaces where farmers and consumers can communicate more.