Tag - agriculture

 
 

AGRICULTURE

Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 12, 2017
Japan picks ‘Wagyu Olympics’ winners amid growing demand for luxury beef
More than 500 cattle paraded through a ring in the Tohoku region for the “Wagyu Olympics” to win prizes and recognition as the most fertile — and mouth-watering — examples of wagyu beef, increasingly popular among foodies around the world.
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2017
Energy hogs: China targets farm animals’ waste as a ‘clean’ power source
China will pay farmers to turn animal waste into fertilizer and power, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Wednesday, as Beijing cracks down on agricultural pollution that has for years leaked into rivers and lakes, angering Chinese residents.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 20, 2017
Japan’s farm ministry to promote rental of urban farmland
The agriculture ministry plans to establish a new system for promoting urban agriculture by making it easier to rent farmland, ministry sources have said.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 14, 2017
Some Japanese brand legacies stand to profit from geographical indication; others, not so much
In the not so distant future, Kraft Parmesan, a household name for grated cheese with its distinctive green package sold by a Japanese dairy company, may disappear from shelves in Japan or reappear bearing a different name.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2017
Soil science can help save a hungry planet
By 2050, the world’s population will approach 10 billion people. Feeding them all will require novel solutions.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2017
Japan’s young farmers pin hopes on technology to revitalize agricultural industry
A new breed of younger, business- and tech-savvy farmers is transforming Japan’s shrinking agriculture sector with cutting-edge techniques and marketing strategies, giving new hope to an industry in slow decline.
WORLD
Jul 28, 2017
Mongolia bans grain exports due to drought from hottest temperatures in 56 years
Mongolia has suspended grain exports with as much as a third of its farmland suffering from severe drought after temperatures last month rose to the highest in more than half a century, agricultural officials said.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jul 26, 2017
Stockbreeding industry interests and the Kake Gakuen case
The opening of the first university veterinary medical department in 50 years is part of an effort to overhaul interests controlling the nation’s livestock industry.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jul 8, 2017
Enterprising Aomori apple farmer pivots to boutique hard cider
On a steamy June afternoon, the apple trees in the Tsugaru region of Aomori Prefecture are laden with fruit. Now, the young apples are hard green spheres the size of golf balls, but come autumn they will be plump, sweet and ready for harvest.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 22, 2017
1 million Nigerian farmers given seeds to avert famine in region hit by Boko Haram
Seeds and fertilizer are being delivered to more than a million farmers in Boko Haram-hit northeast Nigeria ahead of the rainy season to combat growing hunger and dwindling aid in a region threatened with famine, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 16, 2017
Three mutations could make bird flu a pandemic illness, study says
Scientists have identified three mutations that, if they occurred at the same time in nature, could turn a strain of bird flu now circulating in China into a potential pandemic virus that could spread among people.
WORLD
May 17, 2017
Giant farms linked to Russia’s political elite fuel fears for smallholders
Giant Russian farms with ties to the political elite have taken control of vast swaths of land to fill gaps on supermarket shelves left by bans on Western imports, according to business consultants and charities.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
May 1, 2017
Mie ‘mikan’ growers use rare varieties to fend off foreign imports
Rare mikan (mandarin oranges or tangerines) that were on the brink of extinction are once again showing up in markets in the Higashi Kishu region in Mie Prefecture, a major citrus growing area.
EDITORIALS
Apr 13, 2017
Sowing the seeds for lower food security?
Abolition of a seed law could have a major impact on Japan’s agriculture in ways that affect food security.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Mar 8, 2017
New Zealander is on a mission to turn Japan green, one balcony at a time
Quakes of 2011 in Christchurch and Tohoku put Kiwi on the path to self-reliance and sustainability.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2017
The geopolitics of environmental challenges
Allowing environmental issues to fall by the wayside at this time of geopolitical and social instability is a mistake.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 3, 2017
Ancient tree cultivation shaped Amazon landscape: researchers
Ancient indigenous peoples had a far more profound impact on the composition of the vast Amazon rain forest than previously known, according to a study showing how tree species domesticated by humans long ago still dominate big swaths of the wilderness.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Feb 22, 2017
China reports more severe form of bird flu, WHO says
China has detected an evolution in the H7N9 avian flu virus that is capable of causing severe disease in poultry and requires close monitoring, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Feb 19, 2017
Hard to detect, deadly China bird flu virus may be more widespread
Bird flu infection rates on Chinese poultry farms may be far higher than previously thought, because the strain of the deadly virus that has killed more than 100 people this winter is hard to detect in chickens and geese, animal health experts say.
EDITORIALS
Feb 18, 2017
Seek global food certification
Japan, at both the public and private level, needs to be more proactive about getting its farm products globally certified.

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival