On Sunday January 5, the Slow Food international vice-president Giacomo Mojoliwill will set out on a fact-finding mission in Japan.
His stay will commence on Tuesday January 7 with a forum on ‘The Consumption of Local Produce’ in the city hall of Sendai. Organized by the Provincial Authority of Miyaghi, the Provincial Education Committee of Miyaghi, the Association for the Promotion of Rice Consumption of the Province of Miyaghi, the Association for the Promotion of Horticultural Brands and the Association for the Promotion of Grain and Soya, the Forum will seek to: a) identify problems in young people’s eating habits; b) help solve these problems by improving diet and introducing local produce into school canteens; c) reawaken the interest of young people for food and local produce. The event is expected to attract about 400 people (schoolteachers, school canteen managers, dieticians, parents, producers, school governors and TV and newspaper journalists). It will feature speeches on ‘The Slow Food Movement and Taste Education’ by Giacomo Mojoli himself, by Shiro Asano, the mayor of Miyaghi, and by Yukio Yamori, a professor at the Kyoto University Graduate School, on ‘The Asian diet of fish, pulses and vegetables from the point of view of preventive medicine’. The Forum will conclude with a panel discussion on ‘School Canteens and the Consumption of Local Produce’ featuring Yukio Yamori, a medical doctor, Saciko Murakami, a dietician and cookery expert, Dr Takahiro Inokuma, an expert on agriculture, Masatsugu Shida, director of an agricultural cooperative, and Sumiko Abe, a school canteen dietician. It will be chaired by Yasuhiko Nakamura, president of Slow Food’s Filosofia Tokyo Convivium.
On Wednesday January 8, Mojoli will take part in a meeting of Slow Food Japan’s Ark committee, and on Saturday January 11 will move to Sapporo to attend the inauguration of the new local Convivium, set up by the chef Kiyomi Mikuni.
Mojoli’s tour of Japan will come to an end in Tokyo on Tuesday January 14 with a meeting and press conference with the Minister of Agriculture, Tadamori Oshima.