Food Policy in Japan

Farm Policy: The Politics of Soil, Surpluses and Subsidies. By Nancy A. Blanpied. (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Inc., 1984. Pp. ix + 179. $9.95, paper.) - Made in Washington: Food Policy and the Political Expedient. By Clarence D. Palmby. (Danville, IL: The Interstate Printers and Publishers, 1985. Pp. xi + 226. $14.95.) - Alternative Agriculture and Food Policies and the 1985 Farm Bill. Edited by Gordon C. Rausser and Kenneth R. Farrell. (Berkeley: Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, University of California—Berkeley and the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, Resources for the Future, 1984. Pp. xix + 425. $18.00.) - U.S. Agricultural Policy: The 1985 Farm Legislation. Edited by Bruce L. Gardner. (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1985. Pp. viii + 385. $12.95, paper.) - Volume 80 Issue 4

Health and Sustainability in the Canadian Food System: Advocacy and Opportunity for Civil Society

What is food policy? Miller and Deutsch (2009) discuss what constitutes food studies; they say that food studies are not really the study of food itself but the study of the relationship between food, the human experience, and food (Brillat-Savarin 1976; also see▶Brillat-Savarin and Food). Miller and Deutsch (2009) outline areas of study such as food science, agricultural science, culinary arts, public health nutrition, and agro-economics, to name but a few areas which they see as incorporating food studies. Food policy incorporates all of the areas but is more than even the study of the relationship between food and the human experience. Food policy is more than health and more than just agricultural policies or even nutrition policy as individual strands; it is the interconnectedness and sometimes even the disconnect between these various areas (see also “▶Agricultural and Food Research Policy”; “▶Agricultural Policy and Governance: Overview”; “▶ Food Trade and World Trade Organization: Agriculture Agreement”). Food policy, as an academic subject, is the study of the relationship between all these areas of study and how policies are formed or not developed despite the weight of the evidence (Lang et al. 2009). For a long time, transport polices were not considered as having much to do with food policy; however, now they are seen as integral in terms of how food is transported from where it is grown to where it is consumed. Food policy can also be defined by the absence of a written policy or even benign neglect of an area. The failure to relate food production to oil and oil prices was for a long time amajor commission in food policy; the food system relies on oil, oil to produce fertilizers for food, oil to power the machines to harvest it, oil to process it, and oil to distribute it. There is an argument that food policy should not become a distinct area of endeavor seeking instead to become part of and embedded in other policies. Like the concept of health in all policies, food should be in all policies. This in reality is difficult to achieve, and the fallback position is to develop a separate food policy. This usually takes the form of a nutrition-based policy (Milo andHesling 1998; Caraher andCoveney 2004). It becomes clear that healthy food-related policies can have an impact on other issues such as environment, considering the example of campaigns to increase fruit consumption in the global north. Fruit consumption has increased significantly since the mid-1970s; this has been largely accounted for by the very sharp rise in purchases of fruit juice which does not provide equivalent nutrition to its fresh counterpart. This fruit juice consumption, however, is often of juices from longdistant fruit, notably oranges from Brazil. A study by the Wuppertal Institute in Germany calculated that 80 % of Brazilian orange production is consumed in Europe. Annual German consumption occupied 370,000 acres of Brazilian productive land, three times the land devoted to fruit production

In seeking to explain why poor countries tend to choose policies that tax agriculture relative to manufacturing while rich countries do the opposite, archetypical parameters for a poor agrarian economy and a rich industrial one are inserted in a computable general equilibrium model to simulate the medium-term effects on income distribution of policies that distort the relative prices of tradables. The model includes a non-tradables sector and intermediate inputs, realistic features that ensure even greater skewness in the distributional effects of protection than simpler models suggest. The magnitude of the results helps explain the tendency for countries to change gradually from taxing to subsidizing agriculture relative to manufacturing as their economies develop. The paper draws out the implications of the analysis for agricultural and trade policy reform in the 1990s.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Part I Process The Policy Setting Policy Problems of Food and Agriculture The Policy Process Food and Agricultural Policy Interest Groups. Part II International Trade and Macroeconomic Policy The World Food Problems The Role of Trade International Trade and Market Development Policy The Macroeconomics of Agriculture. Part III Domestic Farm and Resource Policy The Farm Problem Domestic Farm Policy Resource Policy The Structure of Agriculture. Part IV Consumers, Rural Development and Agribusiness Food Price Policy Nutrition, Food Safety, and Food Quality Rural Development Policy Impact of Agricultural and Food Policy on Agribusiness National Agricultural and Food Policy.

This study reviews the points of the food self-sufficiency ratio target and stable supply of food positioned in the basic plan. Regarding the target of the food self-sufficiency ratio targets, in addition to the setting based on the conventional thinking, we set a new target for the food domestic production rate. Regarding food policy, we positioned responding to the increasingly diversifies and sophisticated needs of consumers, promoting government-integrated exports, ensuring food safety, eating habits, and establishing comprehensive food security that takes into account changes in education and food supply risks.

Good nutrition depends on access to a healthful food supply. Although a great deal of attention has been paid to food intake as a determinant of nutrition and overall health, little attention has been paid to the food supply system, health risks embedded in it, and its effect on people's choices. Most national governments intervene in their agricultural sectors in order to provide benefits to producers and consumers; however, these interventions are not designed with public health in mind. Governments should consider population nutrition and chronic disease risk when devising and implementing agricultural and food policies. They should seek opportunities to adjust agricultural and trade policies to be consistent with national health and nutritional priorities and guidelines. Although the paper gives several examples, country-specific policy changes can be determined only through analysis of individual country policies and nutrition conditions.

The thesis of this article is that food and agricultural policy in the 1980s will be shaped by emerging economic, social, and political realities that are different from the realities which gave rise to policies and programs of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s and which, modified, continued through the 1970s. The characteristics of this new policy environment include: –A changed economic structure and character of United States agriculture, and thus a changed constituency with changed policy needs.–The internationalization of U.S. agriculture with its favorable and unfavorable implications, but which imposes certain constraints and disciplines on domestic agricultural and food policy.–The prospect of a new supply and demand “equilibrium” and the end of 60 years of adjustment to supply growing faster than demand.–The new, broadened context within which agricultural policies and programs must be considered.

The effect of ICT development on economic growth and energy consumption in Japan

BackgroundIn sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), malnutrition coupled with rising rates of undernutrition and the burden of overweight/obesity remains one of the most significant public health challenges facing the region. Nutrition-sensitive agriculture can play an important role in reducing malnutrition by addressing the underlying causes of nutrition outcomes. Therefore, we aim to assess the nutrition-sensitivity of food and agriculture policies in SSA and to provide recommendations for identified policy challenges in implementing nutrition-sensitive agriculture initiatives.MethodsWe assessed past and current national policies relevant to agriculture and nutrition from Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, and South Africa. Thirty policies and strategies were identified and reviewed after a literature scan that included journal articles, reports, and policy documents on food and agriculture. The policies and strategies were reviewed against FAO’s Key Recommendations for Improving Nutrition Through Agriculture and Food Systems guidelines.ResultsThrough the review of 30 policy documents, we found that the link between agriculture and nutrition remains weak, particularly in agriculture policies. The review of the policies highlighted insufficient attention to nutrition and the production of micronutrient-rich foods, lack of strategies to increase farmer market access, and weak multi-sectoral collaboration and capacity building.ConclusionNutrition-sensitive agriculture has received scant attention in previous agricultural and food policies in SSA that were riddled with implementation issues, lack of capacity, and ineffective methods for multi-sector collaboration. Recognition of these challenges are leading countries to revise and create new policies that prioritize nutrition-sensitive agriculture as a key driver in overcoming malnutrition.

Farm Policy: The Politics of Soil, Surpluses and Subsidies. By Nancy A. Blanpied. (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Inc., 1984. Pp. ix + 179. $9.95, paper.) - Made in Washington: Food Policy and the Political Expedient. By Clarence D. Palmby. (Danville, IL: The Interstate Printers and Publishers, 1985. Pp. xi + 226. $14.95.) - Alternative Agriculture and Food Policies and the 1985 Farm Bill. Edited by Gordon C. Rausser and Kenneth R. Farrell. (Berkeley: Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, University of California—Berkeley and the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, Resources for the Future, 1984. Pp. xix + 425. $18.00.) - U.S. Agricultural Policy: The 1985 Farm Legislation. Edited by Bruce L. Gardner. (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1985. Pp. viii + 385. $12.95, paper.) - Volume 80 Issue 4

This thesis aims to understand how public health evidence can be used better to inform the development of food and agriculture policy. It sets out to achieve this by developing and applying two methods that have been advocated for use in evidence-based policy making: health impact assessment (IDA) of agriculture and food policy and calculation of the burden of disease attributable to nutritional risk factors. Neither of the methods had previously been used in this policy context. They were selected as they illustrate two extreme models of evidence-based public health. The first consists of research based, investigator-led analysis producing generalisable, quantitative estimates. The second involves a more contextual, participatory, inter-sectoral approach to collecting. analysing and applying a broader range of data. The methods have been developed and applied using the fruit and vegetable sector as a case study, with specific reference to policies in the Republic of Slovenia, a country that was, during the course of this work, acceding to the European Union and presented a unique political opportunity. This thesis explores how these different evidence-based public health approaches are likely to inform policy, in the light of what we already know about influences on policy making. This thesis finds the total worldwide mortality currently attributable to inadequate consumption of fruit and vegetables is. estimated to be up to 2.635 million deaths per year. Increasing individual fruit and vegetable consumption to up to 600 g per day (the baseline of choice) could reduce the total worldwide burden of disease by 1.8%, and the burden of disease in Slovenia by 2%. The greatest impact would be on reduction of ischaemic heart disease and ischaemic stroke. However, such descriptive epidemiology is an insufficient basis for policy formulation as the results say nothing about how interventions are likely to reduce a problem The results of the health impact assessment show that evidence demonstrating priorities for public health action will be different from the type of evidence required for planning, policy implementation or evaluation.

Uruguay round commitments on domestic support: Their implications for developing countries

This article analyzes the pattern of public works spending in Japan and the United States from the perspective of recent thinking on the role of infrastructure in promoting economic growth. This is an important topic given the sluggish economic growth in Japan in the 1990s. There is renewed interest in the role of public infrastructure in shaping the economy’s fortunes in light of developments in the United States. The prolonged economic downturn, rising public works spending and public debt, and the election of the Koizumi government have motivated the reassessment of decades-old public works policies in Japan. The article begins by reviewing recent developments and findings in the literature regarding public works spending. This is followed by an analysis of patterns of public works spending in Japan and the outcomes of this policy. The later sections explore policies to reposition public works spending in favor of more productive sectors to best contribute to economic growth.

National Nutrition Summit: Collaboration, Consensus, Action