Environmnet-Friendly Farming and "Natural" Food(<Special Issue>Nature and Economic Geography)

Agriculture is strongly tied with natural environment. Additionally, food usually requires a level of naturalness because it is directly ingested into living body. In this paper, I discuss nature in terms of agriculture and foods frm the perspective of economic geography. Generally speaking, organic agriculture and environment-friendly farming are less of a burden on natural environment, but this is only effective for the immediate natural setting in the vicinity of their farms. Organic farming normally has less land productivity; hence much larger land is needed to meet the demand for world food consumption. In other words, organic farming can have environmental risks, leads to the deforestation and the development of virgin land. It is also said that conventional farming leads to the deterioration of the natural environment. While I admit this is true, I must insist that the most serious environmental problems associated with agriculture emerged in Japan come with alteration of local fauna and flora, not the sustainability of agriculture itself. Recently, so-called life-brand rice farming, which aim is to promote the reintroducing endangered species such as crested ibis or oriental stork, has attracted attention as an example of environment-friendly agriculture. However, only a portion of animals are protected in some of these locations. On the other hand, industrial livestock production has proved to have a horrendous burden on the environment as massive amount of animal wastes pollute rivers, soils, and the atmosphere. These hazardous problems nowadays are driven away to peripheral regions by the capitalism system. Compared to manufacturing, agriculture faces the challenges of three constraints: natural environment, land, and biological traits. Plant factory have recently basked in the spotlight as they have overcome natural environmental constraints faced by agricultural farms. The location theory of plant factories is utterly different from that of traditional agriculture. Present plant factories do not displace common farmland anywhere, and are able to develop new types of produce, such as high sugar content tomato and low potassium lettuce. Affluent consumers appreciate the value of naturalness in their foods. The concept of terroir in French wine has been expanded to other products, creating appellation systems beyond wine. The natural environment of production areas differs from place to place. Localness which is characterized by natural environment is growing in importance to determine the quality of foods. This is partly because naturalness has become a symbol in order to maximize profits, as urbanization has progressed. However, what is "natural" can differ according to area or country.