The aim of this paper is to clarify the influence that use of local agricultural products has in regional agriculture through examination of the situation in green tourism facilities as well as the prescribed factors for use. The results are as follows: 1) As farmers' organizations must reflect farmers' interests more directly,the ratio of local foods is higher in areas with strong farmers' organizations than non-farmers' organizations. 2) With the increase of both farmers over sixty and female farmers, local-foods ratios increase. Agriculture by the aged and women is usually small scale and not always suitable for wide-range marketing. In the case that green tourism facilities buy out of standardized products, such non-traditional farmers are able to sell their products easily. 3) A lower share of vegetable production leads to higher local-foods ratios. In lower share vegetable production areas, green tourism facilities are the only suitable shopping point. On the other hand, marketing channels are already established in dominant vegetable production areas. 4) As green tourism facilities are becoming the only marketing avenue in under-populated areas, local-foods ratios are higher than in other areas. 5) A higher paved-road ratio also leads to the higher local foods ratios. Good roads provide good conditions for shipping, especially in hillside areas.

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Organic farming has been one of the fastest growing segments of U.S. agriculture since the 1990's. In December, 2000, after a ten-year argument, the National Organic Program Final Rule was published by USDA. Under this rule, all the state and private certification programs for organic agriculture & livestock are to become incorporated into the unified national certification system. Thus, all agricultural products labeled organic must originate from farms and operations certified by a state or private agencies accredited by the USDA. The rule also prohibits the use of ionizing radiation, sewage sludge, and excluded methods throughout the process of organic production and handling. With the global organic livestock market growing rapidly, Codex Alimentarius Commission also established Guidelines for the Production, Processing, Labeling and Marketing of Organically Produced Livestock Products in July 2001. Japan, lacking any national standard for organic livestock, has just began to develop a national certification system. However, the toughest obstacle to this task concerns setting the standards on the conditions of raising animals, such as free-range access and organic livestock feedstuffs requirements. This paper examines the present conditions of the organic livestock production in U.S. and reviews the contents of the National Organic Program Final Rule, focusing mainly on livestock. In conclusion, the future direction for the Japanese national standard for organic livestock is also considered.

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Fish discard collection systems seek to maintain freshness and to separate discards from other garbage, an increasinly important process. However, an increase in the scale of processing facilities has not improved the profitability of the system. Thus, the present study examines the role of public sector in improving the fish discard collection system. Two case studies were conducted to compare the systems in Tokai and Kanto districts. This paper argues that the role of the public sector in the fish discarding process should be complementary to the market-base system. As a result of the direct intervention of the government in such public corporations in Aichi prefecture, the profitability of the fish discarding process continues to be at a very low level. In contrast, the fish discard process in Kanto district operates at high profit levels, this with the involvement of private sector. The public sector role in this district is complementary by coordinating the activities among retailers,distributors, and processors. The study shows the importance of unification and the sharing of information within the collection system. The complementary role of the public sector in Kanto district is an important aspect in this regard.

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The number of the young farmers who started farming for the first time has changed from decrease to increase during the last year, the first reversal since 1990. However, as this measures on the entry to farming, the trend does not necessarily equate to an increase of the number of young farmers who continue with farming for a long time. This paper seeks to assess the question of resignation from farming. As the resignation rate has has been consistently greater than entry since 1990, the overall number of the young farmers who continue with farming has not increased during this time. Furthermore, almost of the studies on young farmers have considered young men, ignoring the case for young women. This paper attempted to assess the case for young female farmers as well. The findings indicate that the number of the young female farmers who started farming for the first time during the last year saw a similar change from decrease to increase. This factor may be connected with the above-mentioned conditions of young male farmers on the one hand. As well, while the increasing trend of the number of young female junior agricultural college students is noted, this may be related to the change of the intention of girls who get into college as well as with the reorganization of the junior agricultural college.

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The re-emergence of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in EU is also affecting Japan.The first domestic case of a milk cow infected with BSE occured in September 2001. Therefore, an increasing consciousness of the need for the safety of feed is being seen in allied industries, and the rendering industry, which collects and renders animal waste from suppliers such as abattoirs, to produce meat and bone meal (MBM) and tallow, is in a situation condition to cope with the present situation. In this paper, we consider the conditions of sustainability for the rendering industry by ensuring the safety of a backward channel. The results obtained from the analyses are as follows. 1. In the average-scale rendering factory, by-products from domestic animals are coped with in one line, and it is unfortunately difficult for an average-scale renderer to equip with a new line in the present situation. It is necessary to separate line for materials which come from cattle with others to ensure the safety of rendering product from now on. 2. Before a milk cow infected with BSE appeared in Japan, Eliminating salmonellas was the highest priority of safety assurance in a rendering factory, and had obliged a renderer's management to be stringent. Since then, preventing BSE has been the most important problem, and it means the thorough activity to eliminte 'prion' that causes BSE. 3. Considering to the fact of present rendering industry situation and the urgency of this issue, it is necessary to give subsidiary for rendering industry due to their product marketing promotion activities, which in turn will improve their condition.

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Branded eggs have held a twenty-percent market share in Japan. The types of brand-names have diversified, but classifying the elements related to the brands into two types, concrete and abstract, this study focuses on clarifying the number of elements, name-types defined by the elements, relations between the name-types and prices or production costs. The study also analyses the difference of these between upstream and mid and down-stream. Analysis of 527 samples of branded eggs show that most of the brand names consist of one or two elements. The element of simple image is the most common, and the influence on prices, in case of two or three , is significantly high for wholesale and retail prices. The abstract name-type is more popular at mid and down-stream levels than upstream. The prices related to direct sale among each name-type shows little gap at an upstream level, but the prices in abstract name-type are higher than in concrete name-type at the mid and down-stream.

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There has been an Import-Export License (IEL) system for Chinese foreign trade management until the China's WTO (World Trade Organization) accession. Through this system, the Chinese central government controls the foreign trades of whole states on the basis of IEL, which are issued by concerning government's offices. In order to clarify the configuration of the IEL system, we chose the Shaanxi Province, which the central area of the Chinese West Region Development Policy. After describing the legal and administrative structure at the state level, we investigated the actual situation in Shaanxi Province. In addition, we analyzed the present situation of state trading firm in order to inspect the IEL system, including the organization, personnel and the mechanism of the internal management system.

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In 1995, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the promotion of exporting high-value agricultural products (HVP) in its Long-term Agricultural Trade Strategy (LATS). The USDA considered this strategy as a trump to increase exports in the post-Uruguay Round. This paper examines the emergence and development of the U.S. HVP export policy post 1980s. This paper investigates the theme from two angles. The first considers the position of HVP export among all U.S. agricultural and food exports. The second angle considers the meaning of the HVP policy for U.S. agribusiness. By analyzing these points, the mean of the new situation will be proven. The paper concludes first, that the U.S. federal government needs HVP export promotion in order to win European Union (EU) HVP markets, second, that U.S. agribusiness aims to profit from a value added formation, and finally, that the U.S. agricultural trade policy has shifted its focus from -bulk- to -bulk:HVP-.

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This paper clarifies the reasons for the changing characteristics of the Shouguang Wholesale Market, the most famous shipping point market in China, over the last several years. The conclusions are as follows. 1) The function of the Shouguang Wholesale Market has changed from being a shipping point market to a relay market for collecting and distributing nationwide. As such, this market doesn't necessarily depend on local vegetables produced in Shouguang City. 2) The factor of this change is the loss of collecting power of the Shouguang Wholesale Market for local vegetables. This loss was brought by two events. This first is that the manager of the Shouguang Wholesale Market stresses handling of non-local vegetables produced in other areas. The second is that 10 satelite markets were established in this city and effectively competed with the Shouguang Wholesale Market to collect local vegetables. 3) Such changes reduced the role of the transaction agents in this market. Because the increase in share of non-local vegetables brought the quantity per seller higher, the transactions between sellers and buyers became easier.

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