Consumers Union of Japan – Page 12 – Sound and Healthy Future for Our Children

Message from Michiyo Koketsu, CUJ

My name is Michiyo Koketsu, and this year’s message for the TABEKIME Campaign is again from the field. As the Secretary General of Consumers Union of Japan, I feel strongly about this topic!

My T-shirt reads, “Defend Our Rice! Fight For Our Rights”. I received it from MASIPAG, an NGO against genetically modified rice in the Philippines. I wear it as a gesture of solidarity to MASIPAG and to my colleagues who are fighting against the domination of food by multinational corporations in the world.

I decide what I eat.
I decide what I make.
Not for big corporations.

#たべきめキャンペーン
#WorldHungerDay2022
#FoodChained
#Hungry4Change

How to Participate:
Please take a picture of yourself, the food you want to protect, or the production site of the food you want to protect, and post the picture together with your message board in the following way. You can post as many photos as you want. The message board can be downloaded from the following pdf link. You can use the official name laid out (English version) or you can write your own message on the board. Post your photo(s) using this Facebook link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/806047030062792

Here are pdf files that you can print out and use to take your photo(s):

Tabekime

Tabekime blank

By fridfrid | 20/10/2022 | Biotechnology, Food, North-South |

Press Release: “We Decide What We Eat Ourselves” Campaign

Press Release 18 October 2022

Consumers Union of Japan

No! GMO Campaign

You are invited to participate in the action TABEKIME Campaign 2022:

We, together with family farmers, small farmers’ groups and citizens’ groups around the world, have been opposing the domination of food by multinational corporations. We will promote the TABEKIME Campaign, an abbreviation for “We decide what we eat ourselves,” which was very popular last year, starting from World Food Day this year.

World Food Day is celebrated every year on 16 October, as designated by the United Nations.

Eating is the basis of life. Despite this, many people around the world are suffering from hunger, even though a lot of food is produced. The biggest reason for this is the domination of food by multinational corporations and the uneven distribution of food in developed countries. Currently, the multinational corporations that control food are represented by agrochemical companies that develop genetically engineered crops and other products.

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 are launching the TABEKIME Campaign again this year, in order to assert that we decide what we eat, not what is forced upon us by the multinational corporations. The way to participate is simple. We hope you will join us and appeal to the world.

Click here to find out how you can participate in our TABEKIME Campaign:

https://www.nishoren.org/en/?p=2531

We are using the following hashtags in solidarity with our colleagues who resist the domination of food by multinational corporations abroad:

#WorldHungerDay2022
#FoodChained
#Hungry4Change

Best regards,

Michiyo Koketsu

Secretary General

Consumers Union of Japan

Consumers Union of Japan (CUJ) is a politically and financially independent non-governmental organization. CUJ is funded by membership fees, sales of its publications and donations. CUJ was founded in April 1969 as Japan’s first nationwide grassroots consumer organization.

Address: Nishi Waseda 1-9-19-207 Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo, Japan (169-0051)
E-mail: office.w@nishoren.org
Fax: +81-(0)3-5155-4767

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By fridfrid | 18/10/2022 | Biodiversity, Biotechnology, Food |

Participate in the Photo Submission Action TABEKIME Campaign 2022

You are invited to participate in the action TABEKIME Campaign 2022

*Photo submissions will be accepted from October 16, 2022.

Every year, 16 October is World Food Day. Originally, this day was set up with the hope that people around the world would be able to enjoy a rich dietary life. However, the world’s food supply is now controlled by a few multinational corporations such as Bayer and Corteva, and as a result, food is concentrated in the hands of a small number of people in developed countries, leaving many people without food on a daily basis. This trend is becoming more and more pronounced as the application of advanced technologies such as genetic engineering.

Click here to see the contributions, with many photos for the TABEKIME Campaign in 2021.

Background of the TABEKIME Campaign:

World Food Day is celebrated every year on 16 October, as designated by the United 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, and new genome-editing technology has been introduced. Yet, the structure of food domination by multinational corporations has only strengthened, not weakened.

We are launching the TABEKIME Campaign again this year, as we did last year, in order to assert that we decide what we eat, not what is given to us by the multinational corporations. The way to participate is simple. We hope you will join us and appeal to the world.

The name of the campaign is

I decide what I eat.

I decide what I make.

Not for big companies.

(Abbreviated name: TABEKIME Campaign 2022)

Purpose of the Campaign:
The purpose of this campaign is to express our will by taking pictures of message boards to protect our food from being plundered by big business.

Campaign Organizations:
Consumers Union of Japan
No! GMO Campaign

https://www.facebook.com/groups/806047030062792

Here are pdf files that you can print out and use to take your photo(s):

Tabekime

Tabekime blank

Or use these jpg images:

By fridfrid | 10/10/2022 | Biodiversity, Biotechnology, Civil Rights, Food, Food Security |

Stop Genetically Modified Trees!

Consumers Union of Japan has signed the statement urging Forest Stewardship Council to maintain its strong ban on genetically modified trees.

FSC prohibits FSC member companies from using genetically modified (also known as genetically engineered) trees for commercial purposes, in certified or non-certified areas. However, FSC allows associated companies to conduct research field tests of GM trees in non-certified areas, a decision that has already allowed companies to advance their GM trees development.

Learn More

You can also sign the FSC petition here! (Before 5 October 2022)

The Campaign to Stop Genetically Engineered Trees notes that FSC has launched a “genetic engineering learning process” that proposes to directly overseeing selected field tests of GE trees. FSC is developing its own “governance model” of “safeguards” that it will ask companies to comply with when they run these field tests.

The effort to permanently stop GE trees is reaching a critical stage. It is essential to have a broad network of organizations, grassroots groups, alliances, and coalitions that are informed and mobilized to spread the word about the GE tree threat to their constituencies and activate them on the issue.

The mission of the Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees is to protect forests and biodiversity, and provide support to communities threatened by the dangerous release of genetically engineered trees.

The Campaign is an alliance of national and international organizations with the goal to ban the release of genetically engineered trees into the environment.

By fridfrid | 13/09/2022 | Biodiversity, Biotechnology, Environment, North-South |

Japan Resources – 186

Please click here for our latest English newsletter (pdf): JR 186

From the Editors: Out of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan?

Report on the GMO-Free Zone Movement in Japan

Japan’s Animal Welfare Scandal: The Consumer Response

Energy Shift

“We Will Not be Complicit in War, and We Will Not Let it Happen”

In the News: Failed NPT Treaty

From the Editors:

Out of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan?

It seems this year we are dealing with a number of difficult issues at the same time, from the Covid Pandemic and Climate Change, to Russia’s war in Ukraina. Food security and energy supply issues are now in the news on a daily basis.

Japan’s PM Kishida meanwhile failed miserably in the United Nations to get a meaningful result at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, with profound disappointment especially in the City of Hiroshima, which he represents.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) notes that 13,080 nuclear weapons still exist on the Earth, with the U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles together constituting approximately 90 percent of the total. (There used to be over 70,000 back during the Cold War, ed.)

We ask you to stay updated with CUJ’s activities and news on our English website, as well as on our English Twitter account: https://twitter.com/consumerunionjp/

By fridfrid | 31/08/2022 | Biotechnology, Food Security, Nuclear, Peace, Uncategorized |