Online Symposium: “Technologies for Changing Food Systems”

(Virtual meeting hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries)

On April 6-7, 2021, The World Economic Forum (WEF) convened the first Global Technology Governance Summit (GTGS) hosted by Japan. At the virtual meeting, global stakeholders discussed appropriate deployments of emerging technologies.

Following GTGS, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) held a symposium focusing on technologies in the field of food systems to deepen the discussion on social implementation of these technologies on April 23, 2021.

Online Symposium: “Technologies for Changing Food Systems” (Apr 23, 2021)

Agenda

Opening remarks (Mr. Masaaki Edamoto, Vice-Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries)

Presentation: “Report on the first GTGS” (Ms. Chizuru Suga, Head of WEF Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Japan (C4IRJ))

Part 1 “Challenges to decarbonize Japan’s food systems”

• Presentation 1: “An outline of Measures for achievement of Decarbonization and Resilience with Innovation (MeaDRI)” (Ms. Maiko Kubo, Director of Environment Policy Office, Policy Planning Division, Minister's Secretariat, MAFF)
• Presentation 2: “Climate change and food systems” (Dr. Toshihiro Hasegawa, Group Leader, Impact Assessment and Adaptation Group, Division of Climate Change Adaptation, Research Institute for Argo-Environmental Sciences, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO))
• Presentation 3: “Transforming agriculture by visualization! —Toward the realization of one million hectares of organic farming—” (Ms. Michiko Arai, Appliances Company, Panasonic Corporation)
• Presentation 4: “Practices of ‘4 per 1000 initiative’ in Yamanashi prefecture —Efforts in orchards against global warming—” (Mr. Keiji Bannai, Director General, Agriculture Department, Yamanashi Prefectural Government)
• Panel Discussion (Moderator: Ms. Akiko Nagano, Deputy Director, Environment Policy Office, Policy Planning Division, Minister's Secretariat, MAFF)

Part 2 “Developing FoodTech and Implementing it to society”

• Presentation 1: “Can we accept FoodTech in the future?” (Dr. Shin-ichi Ishikawa, Professor, School of Food Industrial Sciences, Miyagi University)
• Presentation 2: “Utilizing FoodTech for nutrition improvement” (Dr. Taichi Ishizaki, General Manager, Nutrition & Wellness Group, Sustainability Development Dept., Ajinomoto Co., Inc.)
• Presentation 3: “Gastronomy and FoodTech’s possibilities” (Mr. Hitoshi Sugiura, Executive Chef, Onodera Group)
• Panel Discussion (Moderator: Ms. Megumi Avigail Yoshitomi, the PR Manager of Association for Cellular Agriculture, the Center for Rule-making Strategies, Tama University)

Summary

Opening remarks

Mr. Masaaki Edamoto, Vice-Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, stated that we need to construct the new food systems to reduce the environmental burden on the situation of growing world's population. He also strengthened that the importance of development of Japanese food industry by response to consumers’ diverse food demands with FoodTech.

Report on GTGS

Ms. Chizuru Suga, Head of WEF C4IRJ, reported that more than 2,000 leaders from 125 countries attended the summit and 185 representatives took the stage of GTGS, including the Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. She also introduced that the following themes were discussed in the sessions related to agriculture and food systems:

• How can technologies boost agricultural productivity while preserving planetary boundaries? (“Transforming Agriculture” Session)
• Technologies offer unprecedented opportunities to make food systems safer and more sustainable. What practices, policies and partnerships are needed to reset food systems? (“Food System Innovation” Session)

Report on GTGS by Ms. Suga

Part 1

At part 1 session, four presentations and a panel discussion were made. Ms. Maiko Kubo, Director of Environment Policy Office, Policy Planning Division, Minister's Secretariat, MAFF, explained an outline of Japan’s Strategy for Sustainable Food Systems which is called MeaDRI, being considered at that time (MAFF released the final version of it on May 12, 2021. The web page on MeaDRI is here.). She stated that it has ambitious goals for 2050.

Following 4 presentations, the panel discussion on the decarbonation of Japan’s food systems was held and panelists shared following ideas:

• Reducing installation costs of new technologies is the key to make it easier for farmers to introduce them.
• Facilitating farmers to share outcomes of their agricultural practices and accumulating the data enable them to visualize their effectiveness.
• We need more studies which estimates effectiveness of new technologies with taking into consideration government policies as well as their feasibility and costs.

Part 2

At part 2 session, a panel discussion was held after three presentations. During the discussion, participants gave following opinions:

• Stakeholders should visualize FoodTech’s favorable impacts on consumers and explain them effectively.
• It is important that a wider range of stakeholders including players in last mile delivery understand FoodTech.
• Communications between public and private sectors are essential to detect risks given by the new technologies.

Panel discussion at part 2