Examining Co-op Sanchoku from a Food-system Viewpoint

Abstract

Japan's Co-op is the consumers' organization with 24 million members and 3 trillion-yen turnovers in total.
Two incidents in 2008, however, cast strong doubt on the “raison d'etre” of the co-op. First is the “China's poisoned dumpling” case. The dumpling was supplied as one of the co-op label commodities. Though the facts remain unproved, this case seriously damaged the “co-op brand”, which had been attracting consumers with “honesty” and “food safety”. Second is the world-wide financial crisis starting from the United States. It caused depression and underemployment, and shrank consumption in Japan as well.
In this challenging situation, we must re-examine how and to what extent our co-op could contribute to the security and enhancement of the consumers' daily lives. Our co-op, Pal-System, has established a food-supply model characterized by kohai (non-store, individual home delivery) and sanchoku (direct transaction of produce). In this study, we verify the validity and possibility of this model from a food-system viewpoint.