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December 22, 2024
 

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AGRICULTURE

Efforts to reduce methane emissions from dairy cows in the U.K. using the feed additive Bovaer, proven safe and effective, have sparked public backlash fueled by misinformation and conspiracy theories.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2024
No, sanitizing cow burps won’t sour your milk or contaminate your cheese
The problem the project addresses is real enough. Beef and dairy products are extremely carbon-intensive food items.
There is no guarantee that bird flu will ever begin transmitting between humans, and U.S. health authorities have emphasized that the risk to the general public remains low.
WORLD
Dec 12, 2024
'Knocking on our door': Experts warn of bird flu's pandemic threat
U.S. health authorities have emphasized that the risk to the general public remains low.
A farmer burns straw stubble after harvesting a paddy field on the outskirts of Jind in India's Haryana state on Nov. 26.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Dec 3, 2024
The farm fires helping to fuel India's deadly air
Burning is a cheap way to clear fields for new crops, making it hard for farmers to shift to other methods despite the consequences.
Mika Abe (right) opened a restaurant committed to animal welfare in Sendai in November.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Dec 2, 2024
Restaurant committed to animal welfare opens in Sendai
Muku offers dishes including grilled pork from pasture-raised pigs and poached eggs from cage-free chickens, served as part of a salad bowl.
Global beef consumption has slowed and the carbon footprint of the global cattle herd may already be declining.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2024
Peak beef could already be here
Global beef consumption has slowed and the carbon footprint of the global cattle herd may already be declining.
Ukraine’s government has turbocharged its pitch for international help in land-mine clearance, attracting a rush of special machinery from Japan and funds from philanthropist Howard Buffett with astonishing results.
WORLD
Nov 17, 2024
Ukraine supercharges mine-clearing push to revive war-torn farms
Safe access to farmland is essential for a country known as Europe’s breadbasket and demining Ukraine could take decades.
This September, six years after planting, researchers successfully cultivated 12 black truffles totaling 200 grams.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 14, 2024
Japan researchers achieve second success in artificial black truffle cultivation
While black truffles do grow naturally in Japan, cultivation methods are still underdeveloped, prompting ongoing research.
Groove Armada’s Andy Cato at his farm in Oxfordshire, U.K.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Oct 28, 2024
How a DJ became an unlikely champion for green farming
Over the past six years, Andy Cato has built a network of more than 100 farmers in the U.K. and France to grow wheat using regenerative farming methods.
Flooding in Feni, Bangladesh, on Aug. 25. Bangladesh's agriculture ministry said such flooding this year has resulted in a substantial loss of rice production.
WORLD
Oct 20, 2024
Floods destroy 1.1 million tons of rice in Bangladesh
Floods in Bangladesh have destroyed about 1.1 million metric tons of rice, leading to increased imports amid rising food prices.
Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki speaks about measures against the spread of bird flu on Thursday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 17, 2024
Hokkaido reports Japan's first bird flu case of the season
The report is the country's earliest confirmed bird flu case at a domestic poultry farm in over two decades. 
Starbucks has 10 support centers around the world where agronomists work with farmers on research and best practices.
BUSINESS
Oct 3, 2024
Starbucks buys research farms as climate change threatens coffee supply
Bolstering the coffee industry’s climate resilience has taken on fresh urgency this year.
Cracked ground at a farm in Lincoln, U.K. Extreme weather worldwide is pushing up prices for food staples in ways that could eventually flow through to higher grocery bills.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 1, 2024
Rising food costs due to extreme weather likely to drive up grocery bills
One index of nine major food products has recorded a monthly gain of more than 7% — the most since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent markets soaring in early 2022.
Tetsuya Ike, a farmer in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, examines a site where his greenhouse farm used to be before it was washed away by last week's torrential rain.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2024
Farmers struggle to rebuild after devastating rains in Wajima
Fields that had recently begun to recover from the damage caused by the Jan. 1 quake have been submerged by torrential downpours.
The rice harvest ramped up this month and will ease a supply squeeze, but farmers and Japan’s main grain distributor have agreed to higher contract prices.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2024
Rice inflation to persist despite harvest, as prices rise over 20% on year
Tokyo shoppers were paying 23% more than a year ago for 5 kilogram bags of rice last month, while wholesale prices have risen 28% — the biggest hike since 1975.
Kirin Holdings and others have established the technology to grow hops indoors.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 22, 2024
Brewers developing climate change-resistant beer ingredients
Reduced barley yields stemming from droughts and extreme temperature could see beer prices rise in Japan, some experts have said.
Through trial and error, Tashi Gyamtso and his team meticulously selected a variety of herbs and vegetables best suited to Yufuin’s unique altitude, climate and soil conditions — and which now form the backbone of Jimgu's menu.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Destination Restaurants
Sep 22, 2024
Jimgu: A farm-driven restaurant of outstanding local variety
Three years before chef Tashi Gyamtso served his first meal at Jimgu, he arrived in Oita Prefecture to build the farm that stocks his kitchen today.
DJI has said that it has no ties to the Chinese military, saying "the unfounded accusations against our agricultural drone technology are putting U.S. farmers at risk by potentially depriving them of the tremendous benefits that DJI spray drones offer."
WORLD / Politics
Sep 7, 2024
Lawmakers want U.S. to address risks posed by Chinese agriculture drones
The lawmakers asked for a briefing by Sept. 30, citing the large number of drones produced by Chinese drone manufacturer DJI as a security concern.
Shuzo Fukushi, who heads Rice Meister Kojimachi in Tokyo, shows a bag of Calrose mixed with domestic rice at his store on Thursday.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 6, 2024
Demand for Calrose rice rises amid Japanese rice shortage
The California rice is a medium-grain variety cheaper than the Japanese short-grain cultivar, but with a similar taste.
A sheep suffering from Bluetongue virus is injected with an anti-inflammatory medicine on a farm in Saint-Felix-de-Rieutord, south of Toulouse, France.
WORLD
Sep 6, 2024
European farmers grapple with bluetongue virus surge
Explosion of cases of the insect-borne viral disease that affects sheep and cows impacts thousands of farms in Europe.
Empty shelves of rice are pictured in a supermarket in Tokyo on Aug. 27 with a notice asking customers to buy one brand a day for a family.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2024
Agricultural Ministry holds meeting on rice shortage in stores
As of the end of June, private-sector rice inventories in the country stood at 1.56 million metric tons, the lowest since comparable data became available in 1999.
Freed anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson arrives in France
U.S.-Canadian anti-whaling environmental activist Paul Watson, who was released from prison in Greenland's capital Nuuk after five months in detention, arrives with Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France, at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy-en-France, near Paris, on Friday.
Nippon Steel alleges undue White House influence on doomed deal review
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Dec. 10.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
Casual workouts, cool living, ‘complete’ food: Japan’s health trends of 2024
In 2024, efficiency trumped effort among Japan's fitness-focused aspirants.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world
mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

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