Food Action Nippon Grand Prize Won by Only Private Agricultural High School in Japan

The Food Action Nippon Award is presented to businesses and organizations that contribute to improve Japan's food self-sufficiency rate. On December 14, 2011, the Grand Prize for 2011 was awarded to Ainou Gakuen Agricultural High School in Iga City, Mie Prefecture. The school, the only private agricultural high school in Japan, was selected for its long years of effort in organic farming education, as well as the graduates' high employment rate in the farming industry.

Ainou Gakuen Agricultural High School is a boarding school founded in 1963 by Zenkoku Ainou Kai (All Japan Agriculture Lovers Association) for the purpose of fostering future farmers. The goal of the education program is to establish sustainable agriculture, thus promoting recycling-based farming techniques that avoid chemical fertilizers and pesticides. From the second year onwards, students select an area of specialization from six fields, including vegetables, fruit and livestock, and move onto practical farming training.

In order to improve the food self-sufficiency rate within the campus, meals served in school are made from crops, livestock and processed food produced and prepared by the students themselves. Their efforts have achieved a remarkable 70 percent self-efficiency rate. The school is also enthusiastic about self-sufficient energy - biofuel made from waste cooking oil is used in the farming machinery, and a biogas generator is expected to be introduced in 2012.

The school is well-known nationwide for its high employment rate in the farming industry. Among the more than one thousand graduates, 45 percent have become farmers in their hometowns.

Conserving Energy and Contributing to Sustainable Society, While Recognizing Individuals and Community Uniqueness: MOS Food Services, Inc.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/mailmagazine/newsletter/pages/030229.html

Posted: 2012/03/22 06:00:15 AM