Kobe Conference Declaration: Community Supported Food and Farming (Symposium Final Declaration).

We are proud to have held the international URGENCI symposium in Japan in a timely manner. Another important international conference, COP 10, is scheduled to be held in Nagoya, Japan this autumn.


The outcome of these conferences will have a significant influence on Japanese organic agriculture, and the future of Japanese agriculture in general.

Organic agricultural practice has developed shared values that underline the importance of environmental conservation and the protection of biodiversity. Our lifestyles reflect these values.

In the Kobe Declaration in May 2008, we urged the G8 Summit leaders to implement the following four points:

１．Promote appropriate scale organic agriculture so that producers, distributors, and consumers can cooperate;

２．Realize the policy to develop local community and biodiversity based on agriculture, food, and environment;

３．Establish the environmentally sound global trading rules which value local agriculture and food sovereignty;

４．Establish the recycling-oriented and cooperative society based on natural cycle and life cycle.

Bearing this Declaration in mind and in search of future development of Grow Local, Eat Local TEIKEI and URGENCI movement we have shared our organic agricultural history, current trends, a new path for the future as follows.

In early 70's, people forecast that human beings would encounter three major disasters: nuclear and environmental destruction, and human alienation.

We warned that the deterioration of food quality was a potential fourth disaster. Although mass production and efficiency and high economic growth may have created affluence in Japan, we have paid a high price for preferring efficient production to the quality of life. There is serious environmental pollution of our planet. It has affected all human and animal lives, and has led to diseases such as Minamata.

Regionally specific environmental pollution has sadly become a larger problem. Pesticide residue, chemical additives, and genetically modified organisms are sneaking into our food chain, resulting in a loss of food quality and "Food Pollution". People in many other regions of the world still suffer from hunger.

These events have led food-conscious consumers and ecologically and health-conscious growers to connect through organic agriculture. The direct partnership between growers and consumers that developed has become known as the Grow Local Eat Local TEIKEI Movement.

The term "TEIKEI" became universal, and its philosophy and marketing methods can be seen CSA farms in North America, AMAP partnerships in France and the creation of the URGENCI International network.

CSA and AMAPs are becoming increasingly widespread and accepted, and Japanese TEIKEI are now considering the next stage of their development. 

The founders of the TEIKEI movement in Japan connected by networking.  We have certainly succeeded in creating organic produce and a developing a local distribution network system for our products, but regional community development has not followed at the same speed.  The Japanese TEIKEI movement has slowed down.

 Conventional food distribution fails to take local producers into account. The global movement for sustainable local development now includes local suppliers and products and is working to create a society based on organic agriculture and preservation of the environment. Community development projects using the same principles of small-scale organic family agriculture now exist in many regions of the world, as this symposium has clearly demonstrated.

Projects include farming, business and processing sectors, cooperatives and working together in a new participatory approach, food-education through agriculture, medical care, a participatory approach to public welfare, biomass energy use in agriculture, and the beginnings of partnerships with public authorities and local government. We have seen how an entire agricultural community development project has shifted from conventional to fully organic farming. We have also seen how local villagers and local government jointly improved self-sufficiency in forests, villages, and ocean stewardship, united in the way of handling environmental issues.

The diversity of the small-scale organic agricultural approach that embodies the essence of the URGENCI principle is slowly and steadily shifting the paradigm of our community approach to society. Organic agricultural practice is a proven way of achieving a more sustainable society. This type of community development allows local actors to play their part, and we are witnessing great diversity in the approach to local community development. We must promote the practice and understanding of organic small-scale agriculture and raise awareness of the significance of what it can contribute to our society.

As conference participants we confirm the important role of TEIKEI and of URGENCI in protecting organic small scale farming and promoting partnership-building at local and international levels that are an essential foundation for local healthy food and farming.

We aim to create a pollution-free society that promotes a natural, sustainable lifestyle, and to preserve biodiversity. We are striving to establish a peaceful society where lives are valued more than money, and where people understand that life and the environment are intertwined.  TEIKEI is a mutual relationship between different actors in a society based on shared values and objectives. TEIKEI originally aimed to eliminate environmental pollution, but our society is still polluted.  Although the philosophy of TEIKEI is spreading around the world,  new types of pollution continue to threaten our planet. We should remember that the connection between growers and consumers did not develop only for safe food, but that the TEIKEI relationship was established to create a society, supported by healthy local food, small-scale organic family farms and to preserve the environment.

"Local Solidarity-based Partnerships between Producers and Consumers" mean that all actors understand each others' needs and characteristics, and use their skills and knowledge to work towards a joint objective. The next stage of TEIKEI calls for a new philosophy, design and planning.

Without a human society based on food sovereignty, we will not be able to achieve a holistic world where humankind and nature are respected. We want to promote this kind of society by participating in the URGENCI network, which has a system that supports local organic food and small-scale family farms, where the food and farms support the community, and the communities support the earth. This is the meaning of true food sovereignty. It means thinking globally and acting locally.

The Kobe URGENCI Symposium has shared information on community supported food and agriculture.  We have also discussed how to help feed people through small-scale organic family farming, how this approach can support people, communities, and Mother Earth. We proclaim that we will carry forward our responsibility for life and the earth by emphasizing the value of Local Solidarity-based Partnerships between Producers and Consumers, increasing awareness of the TEIKEI principles, developing a global URGENCI network, and promoting organic small-scale family farming. 　　

February 21st, 2010