日本消費者連盟
すこやかないのちを未来へ
Sound and Healthy Future for Our Children

Protest Against Japan’s Military Buildup

6 February Press Conference on the Joint Statement of Consumer Organisations:

We Protest against Japan’s Military Buildup and Increased Spending on Weapons

Date and time: 6 February (Mon), 10:00-11:00

Venue: Plaza F, 3F, Shufuren Conference Room

Programme:

10:00 Opening remarks and explanation on participation in Zoom (Moderator, Shufuren)

10:05 Comments on this joint statement from the calling organisations (Consumer Union of Japan and Shufuren)

10:15 Message from Kanagawa Shodanren, supporting organisation

10:20 Introduction of messages from supporting organisations (Koketsu Michiyo, CUJ)

10:25 Question and answer session

10:45 About the future

10:50 End

Zoom participation will be limited to the media and other reporters

Language: Japanese only

 

2022 We Decide What We Eat CUJ Videos

It has been a great year. It ended with two United Nation Conferences, about Climate Change, and Biological Diversity. Consumers Union of Japan is covering it. Thanks for supporting us.

This is how we made our voice heard, Tabekime Campaign, everyone participated, how we chose what to eat, not the corporations deciding. We, the consumers. We decide, what we want to eat. World Food Day is celebrated every year on 16 October, as designated by the United Nations.

How about it?

Videos from our Channel here:

 

 

Blog: Breaking Bread (CBD COP15)

Blog: Breaking Bread

The expression “Breaking bread” describes an ancient way of sharing food in a friendly way. It means to share a meal with others, and make sure everyone is fed. It is a term used in the Bible, and must have been common in the Middle East and Europe, when bread was made from rye, and harder than today.

I thought about this expression as I was following the final moments of the UN Convention of Biological Diversity, as they decided on how to share the benefits of biodiversity. Congo was unhappy with the final deal, the Framework, as it feels it will not get enough from the developed countries. Adoption of the Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework is a step forward, but it really does not seem that there is strong will to change things. We wanted it to be tough on New GMOs and stop the spread of gene-drives and genome editing.

“We have in our hands a package which I think can guide us all to work together to halt and reverse biodiversity loss,” said Huang Runqiu, the Chinese president of COP15.

We should “break bread” with everyone, and share the benefits of biodiversity, without doing more harm to nature.

Japanese here

ブレイク・ブレッドは、親しみを込めて食べ物を分かち合うという、昔から使われている表現です。みんなで食事を分け合うことでみんなが食べられるという意味です。聖書にも出てくる言葉ですが、パンがライ麦から作られ、今よりも硬かった中近東やヨーロッパでは一般的だったのでしょう。
この表現について、私はカナダのモントリオールで開かれた国連の生物多様性条約COP15の最後の瞬間、生物多様性の利益をどう分配するかを決めるところを追っていた時に思い出しました。コンゴは、先進国から十分な利益を得られないと考え、最終的な取り決めである「枠組み」に不満を持っていました。
COP15では2030年までの新たな目標「昆明モントリオール目標」が採択されました。これは一歩前進ですが、本当に物事を変えようという強い意志があるようには思えません。New GMOを厳しく規制し、遺伝子ドライブやゲノム編集の普及を阻止してほしかったです。
生物多様性への影響に関して民間企業による監視や情報の公表についての責任が義務化されないことも大きな問題だと思います。
私たちは、これ以上自然に害を及ぼすことなく、生物多様性の恩恵を共有し、皆と一緒に「ブレイク・ブレッド」するべきです。
(マーティン・フリッド)

(more…)

How About It, World, Do We Care About Biological Diversity, Or Not?

Consumers Union of Japan and other groups that we work with, including the No! GMO Campaign, have a focus on the global negotiations to protect biological diversity.

We participated in the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) conferences in Japan (2010), India (2012) and in South Korea (2014). We followed the 2022 conference in Montreal, Canada.

We are disappointed about the lack of urgency on new genetic technologies, such as gene-drives and genome-editing, and no progress on pesticides, which we know cause real harm. And why does the United Nation still not recognise the role consumers can play when given the information, and labelling? The concerns raised by civil society organisations working on the issues of synthetic biology and biotechnology remain unresolved.

We wanted a biotechnology related target to establish a process for horizon scanning (finding out what is going on), technology assessment (finding out what is really going on) and monitoring (finding out what is being done). It should also consider socioeconomic impacts of synthetic biology. We think this reinforces the need for a global moratorium on the environmental release of gene drives.

This was our hope for Target 17 but we got nothing like it. We are especially disappointed that all mention of “precaution” has been erased from Target 17.

Consumers Union of Japan

Please contact Michiyo Koketsu or Martin J. Frid for details about our work.

BBC Interview (UK/World)

ABC News (Australia)

Mail & Guardian (Africa)

“Consumers Union of Japan started the No! GMO Campaign in 1996, ” says Michiyo Kotetsu, CUJ. “There is no commercial farming of GMOs in Japan, but a lot of soy, corn and canola is being imported. We think the labelling should be better so consumers can avoid GMO food.”

 

Consumers Union of Japan has signed the global appeal to stop gene drives:

Gene drive technology uses new genetic engineering techniques including CRISPR/Cas9 to forcibly spread genetically engineered traits, including lethal ones, throughout entire populations and species of organisms. Once released into the environment, gene drive organisms cannot be recalled nor controlled thus preempting and overriding the ability of nations.

The company that has long reigned at the center of this domination has been the U.S. company Monsanto. For this reason, citizens around the world have been marking this day as Anti-Monsanto Day. Monsanto has now been absorbed by Bayer AG of Germany.

The campaign, Millions against Monsanto has now become Billions against Bayer.

New genome-editing technology foods have also been introduced here in Japan by local companies. We are very concerned that such efforts contradict the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and Codex Alimentarius rules regarding food safety.

We understand that in the Philippines, the cultivation of GM Yellow Rice is currently being pushed forward. In Japan, the application of genome-edited rice is also under consideration. In addition to seed domination, we regard these technologies as a direct threat to biodiversity and our food security.

We call this our strong international kizuna, the firm emotional bond of solidarity that connects us. This is how we promote our efforts to resist the schemes by multinational corporations and governments. We are really happy that the farmers and consumers of the Philippines and other Asian countries and Japan are working together in this way. If citizens around the world are connected through kizuna, we believe it is possible to stop the cultivation of GM rice and New GMO rice varieties.

Stop Gene Drives

Consumers Union of Japan has signed the global appeal to stop gene drives:

Gene drive technology uses new genetic engineering techniques including CRISPR/Cas9 to forcibly spread genetically engineered traits, including lethal ones, throughout entire populations and species of organisms. Once released into the environment, gene drive organisms cannot be recalled nor controlled thus preempting and overriding the ability of nations, Indigenous Peoples, local communities and future generations to take their own decisions.

Gene drives work against natural rules of inheritance forcing nearly 100% instead of the usual 50% of offspring to inherit their genetically engineered traits. Whereas existing bio­safe­ty systems are designed to limit the spread and persistence of living modified organisms to mitigate against adverse impacts, gene drives are intended to spread genetic modifications to alter species and ecosystems. This would undermine the integrity of the UN Cartagena Protocol and international and national biosafety systems, including the procedures for Advanced Informed Agreement (AIA) of countries and Free, Prior and Informed consent (FPIC) of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Read more here, and learn about this New Genetic Technique, that should be regulated and banned. Media in Europe is already covering the campaign, link here.