First National Millet Summit Held in Japan

Amid a growing trend to take a new look at millet as a nutrient-rich health food, Iwate Prefecture, known as "the Land of Millet," hosted the first national millet summit on September 13 and 14, 2002, aiming to spread awareness of the benefits of a millet-based diet in Japan. The two-day summit attracted about 500 people from various parts of the country.

"Millet" is a general term used for all kinds of grains except rice and wheat. Under this category, a large number of species exist around the world.

On the first day of the summit, a keynote lecture, "Millet Will Save the World," and a report on the "Current and Future Movement of Millet-Eating Diet" were given, followed by a panel discussion, entitled "Thoughts on the Future of Millet - How Can We Best Coordinate the Whole Process from Production to Consumption?" In the evening, a "millet gourmet party" was held at a hotel in Ninohe City, where various dishes of millet were served. On the second day, the participants toured millet farms and took part in cooking millet dishes.

Recently, there has been a growing trend of reconsidering dietary habits in Japan. With the rising popularity of a "slow food" movement, which, in contrast to the "fast food" culture, promotes a return to better living through diet choices, efforts to bring millet back into a daily diet are also expanding. Unlike polished rice and wheat, which are usually eaten without the germ, millet is eaten whole, providing a rich source of calcium, protein and iron.

Today, Japanese people commonly eat "gohan" (polished rice) as the staple food, but it was only in the late 1960s that ordinary people started eating polished rice on a daily basis. Until then, millet was the staple for most people, and it supported the starving Japanese population during the Second World War. Statistics show that more millet was grown than rice in Iwate Prefecture from 1955 to 1965.

The organizers are hoping that this summit will bring about a boost to the production and consumption of millet. They are planning the same type of event for next year.



Posted: 2002/12/30 06:07:46 AM
Japanese version