We should not encourage organic vegetables by Kohe

           Recently, the health is booming in Japan. People look for more safety food, so the organic vegetables become popular. Organic vegetables are authorized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Organic vegetables have the mark of the organic JAS. In order to get this mark, farmers can’t use a chemical fertilizer and an agricultural chemical for more than two years. Japan has about 2 million hectares of arable land and have used 6200 hectare for organic vegetables. In my opinion we should not encourage organic vegetables. The main reason is that the produce is less than common vegetables and organic vegetables are often misunderstood as to nutrition and safety.

              The organic farming’s produce is less than common farming’s. The reason, first, the organic farming can’t use agricultural chemicals so crops suffer some damage from a harmful insect and disease. These crops don’t grow, even granting that these growths, crops are of no value. If ship crops, a consumer won’t buy because of these looks bad due to some damage. So an expense for example cost of transportation and packing is more costly than farmer’s sales. That’s way farmer dispose of these crops. Second, the organic farming can’t use a chemical fertilizer. An organic fertilizer take time to influence and can’t give crops only necessary elements, on the other hand, a chemical fertilizer can give only necessary elements. That’s way organic vegetables are worse growth. Because of these causes, produce is decrease. Japanese food self-sufficiency rate is about only 40 %. And the food crisis is feared all over the world. Is it right that we encourage organic farming?

              I think, the organic farming is misunderstood. Generally, it is says that the organic vegetables are nutritious than common vegetables. The research team of Stanford University says, the organic vegetable’s nutrition as same as the common vegetable’s. Prof. Takushi Tsujimura at Nutrition Coll also says same conclusion. People say, the organic vegetables are safe. The basis of this idea is the organic farming doesn’t use agricultural chemicals. However if only crops suffer damage, can use agricultural chemicals authorized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. And agricultural chemicals are not danger. The agricultural chemicals used in Japan pass many safety reviews, and the agricultural chemicals authorized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. So right using agricultural chemicals is safe and effective. Is it necessary to encourage the organic farming?

              Is it right for us to encourage the organic farming? I think we should not encourage organic vegetables. Japanese food self-sufficiency rate is about only 40 %, we should produce more food. Agricultural chemicals are not dangerous, we should use agricultural chemicals. So we should encourage common farming. I think that, we must increase produce to get over the food crisis. On that account, we choose the farming to get more food, not organic farming.

References

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ home page [2013/02/21]

http://www.maff.go.jp/j/tokei/kouhyou/kensaku/bunya2.html#a1

Syakai Jitsujou Data Zuroku(2009/07/10)[2013/02/21]

 http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/honkawa/0536.html

Tashiro Daiichirou rocketnews24 (2011/03/01)[2013/02/21]

 http://rocketnews24.com/2011/03/01/

TADA (2012/11/14/ 11:26 AM)[2013/02/21]

 http://tad-a.com/blog/?p=443

budounoki [2013/02/21]

http://www.budounoki.info/organic/nouyaku-list.html