Ethical agri-food systems and rural development Poverty alleviation is placed as the first object in the SDGs as well as in the MDGs. Most impoverished people are peasants in the Global South. Accordingly, the SDGs put a high priority on rural development. However, it is difficult for peasants to get out of poverty under the current global agri-food system. Although Fair Trade (FT) has a potential to solve such difficulty by providing an alternative agri-food system, it has not developed its full potential, so far. One of the reasons for this is the small size of the FT market.

This is because FT products are unlikely to directly improve the utility of consumers. Therefore, we need the ethics (“economy of virtue” by Adam Smith), such as consumers’ awareness on social responsibility and sympathy for poor producers in the Global South. The establishment and expansion of ethical consumption for human rights, the environment, and justice can be seen as an embodiment of such ethics.

This research project aims at clarifying the achievements and challenges of rural development by ethical agri-food systems based on FT and ethical consumption (both of which are considered ethical transactions). In addition, we will adopt the viewpoint of food movements such as “right to food” and “food sovereignty” which are attracting attention in the Global North. This research project will reach three outcomes as follows:

1. Clarifying the problems of the current agri-food systems and conditions for
   the establishment and expansion of the ethical agri-food systems,
2. Identifying a pathway to integrative rural development, including poverty alleviation,
3. Presenting the benefits of ethical agri-food systems, especially for consumers in “developed” countries, and the resulting expansion of the FT market.

Research Group: ”Innovation and Development for Solving Social Problems”　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

The research group (RG) on Innovation and Development for Solving Social Problems (IDSSP) was launched early 2022 with the objective of tackling common issues observed in the world and sharing solutions and lessons learned in the process of innovative approaches that can be applicable elsewhere.

We had several events in 2022.

We organized a roundtable session for the 23^rd JASID Spring Conference and invited two professors, one from Taiwan and another from Thailand, to share their experiences. Dr. Vincent Y. Chen at the Department of Leisure Management, Minghsin University of Science and Technology & Institute of Fisheries Science, National Taiwan University from Taiwan explained the application of AI for environmental protection in tourism development and Dr. Ariya Svetamra at the Department of Women’s Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University demonstrated the use of FPAR(Feminist Participatory Action Research) to cope with the issue of violence toward female migrant workers. This session was consisted of two parts, lectures, and discussions. In the latter part, participants expressed their opinions for these lectures and shared their own experiences. Both speakers and participants are from outside Japan and attended the session virtually. The session was facilitated by the Chairperson of this RG, Dr. Naoko Shinkai at the Department of Policy Studies, Tsuda University and the Vice-Chair, Dr. Pei-Hsin Hsu at Taiwan Forestry Research Institute.

After this, we had a small seminar with Dr. Chen to follow up some details on his project in July.

We also hosted a webinar, a research seminar on Business Innovation During the Crises: no trade-off between human rights and business performance in September, 2022. This seminar was co-organized with the Research Institute for Policy Studies, Tsuda University (TU-RIPS). We invited two guest speakers from Sri Lanka, Dr. Rukmal Weerasinghe, Professor, Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, and the Chairperson of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, and Dr. Shirantha Heenkenda, Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. The Chairperson of this RG and the Director of TU-RIPS, Dr. Naoko Shinkai, made opening remarks and served as a facilitator

The details can be found from the websites below:

The seminar flyer:

The report of this seminar:

In 2023, we plan to have seminars and a session about innovation and development at the JASID conference. Since most of the RG’s members reside overseas, we will continue our activities virtually.

We appreciate your support and look forward to your participation.

Innovation and Development for Solving Social Problems
Representative: Naoko Shinkai, Tsuda University