The purpose of this study is to analyze the food collection method as part of food bank activities. This study presents a case study of the Banque Alimentaire, the largest food bank in France. While the original role of food banks is to supply food for people living below the poverty line, food bank activities are also expected to reduce food loss and waste. On the other hand, surplus foods occur randomly in food supply chain. In order for a food bank to play a role in this regard, it has to solve the problem of having gaps between these points, and this is a large burden for food banks. In this case, the food bank isn't distributing surplus foods that have been gathered, but rather is collecting foods that are appropriate for support. Based on this study, if the general public looks for reduction of food loss and waste in food bank activities, it will be necessary to support them with appropriate management measures.

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The Chinese government banned importing plastic waste at the end of 2017. The ban was a shock to advanced countries because this import volume was 7.35 million tons in 2016, accounting for 56 percent of the world plastic waste market. This paper reports on the background of the Chinese ban as well as contemporary alternatives, focusing on collection and processing of mulch film in Chinese agriculture. The paper also analyzes issues and challenges of agricultural plastic waste in Japan since China's import ban, using questionnaire responses gathered by MAFF, and information by interviewing with eight processors. The results point to three challenges: a rise in processing charges, necessity of treatment conversion to RPF or pellets, and cases of processing cancellations.

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A case study of two shipping point markets located in a fruit producing area of northern Nagano Prefecture was conducted to provide insights for shipping organizations and other traders in fruit and vegetable producing areas to improve sales. First, we clarified the collection and delivery processes in shipping point markets and compared these processes with those of agricultural cooperatives operating in the same area. Second, we elucidated sales to mass retailers outside the prefecture and other customers through collaborations between the market wholesalers and traders in the producing areas. We also examined how market functions are strengthened through this trade and how original products and value added fruits are created. The results showed that in the markets of these production areas, wholesalers collect fruit and other products produced in Nagano Prefecture from producers and sell them on to shippers in the producing area and other wholesalers, who then resell them to mass retailers outside the prefecture and to other buyers. Shippers in the producing areas were found to strengthen market functions by performing jobs such as sorting, storage, packing, and delivery themselves. Furthermore, the wholesalers, through collaboration with specific shippers in producing areas, had incorporated functions not traditionally performed by wholesalers into the market and achieved market sales of original products and value added products.

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Geographical Indication (hereafter GI) has spread rapidly in China. The number of products ascribed with GI has become much larger than that in EU. Three different GI systems now coexist in China. However, there are important differences in the content classifications and background of establishment among these three categories. However, with the coexistence of three systems and the range and kinds of GI products, many producers are worried about confusion in the market. Quantitative expansion of GI has been managed to date, and the research concludes by stressing that further qualitative development of the systems will be next subject for future in China.

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This study analyzed the present situation of Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) in Hiroshima Prefecture from a viewpoint of food chain approach. FAO/WHO stresses that the entire process of “farm to table” should be managed to secure food safety, this by adopting process conformity methods like GAP. Although Japan has been delayed in adopting a food chain approach, the number of farms certified as GAP has increased. Case studies on some selected farms were conducted to identify the successful factors of implementing GAP. The farms studied achieved food safety, workers' health and welfare, environmental management, to a certain level. However, the value of GAP certified products was found to not be evaluated properly by the present market mechanism.

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Electronic commerce has developed rapidly and has become an important marketing channel for agricultural products in China. We conducted three case studies of electronic commerce practices, each of which had different characteristics. The first case was of electronic commerce conducted by individual cherry farms, which brought diversification of market channels. In this case, the electronic commerce seemed to be more profitable than the other marketing channels. The second case focused on a village-based company in a strawberry-producing village, which promoted organized marketing. The third case was of a food retailer for specific commodities such as organic products, which developed a niche market.

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[in Japanese]

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This paper clarifies the significance of securing dairy helpers by focusing on the daily living behavior of dairy farmers using dairy helpers. We conducted a hearing survey on eleven dairy helper members in the Tankou area of Iwate prefecture. The results showed that securing a dairy helper contributes to maintaining dairy farming management, ensuring a steady labor force, creating indirect working hours, providing a time adjustment function, expanding and deepening personal contact, and providing for self-development. In particular, the time adjustment function enables collaboration with various farmers, so it is suggested that it supports the development of diverse patterns of agricultural management.

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In China, a multi-level certification system for farmer's cooperatives was introduced in 2010 and 2013 to compensate for deficiencies in the farmer's cooperatives system established in 2007. In the operation of this certification system, when farmer's cooperatives are assessed as certificated cooperatives by Chinese government, the cooperatives will be expected to be leader cooperatives contributing to the revitalization of regional agriculture. In the present research, we focused on the advanced farmer's cooperatives in Tianjin, which were assessed firstly as city-level certificated cooperatives and then as national-level certificated ones. We investigated the functional changes in business contents in the certificating process from general cooperatives to city-level and then national-level certificated cooperatives. Our result suggests that the multi-level certification system could contribute to development of regional agriculture and would be one of the promising system to compensate for imperfections of original farmer's cooperatives system in 2007.

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Bio-ethanol is used in many countries as one renewable energy resource. Although bio-ethanol production is implemented in Japan, its self-sufficiency ratio remains as low as 3 percent due to extremely high domestic production costs compared to those in foreign countries, and domestically used bio-ethanol is imported from Brazil and other countries, thereby consuming high levels of transport energy costs. An urgent issue for effective utilization of energy is to increase the self-sufficiency ratio by reducing the bio-ethanol production cost. If discarded food is used as an input material for the bio-ethanol production process, some initial production processes become unnecessary, which results in reducing the production cost. In this paper, the cost of bio-ethanol production from discarded liquid processed food was estimated. Since discarded liquid processed food is classified as industrial waste, the material cost is treated by inverse onerous contract, and the processing cost is reduced by virtue of a shortened production process. The production cost is estimated in units of prefecture, since transportation costs are lowest if discarded materials are collected in a prefectural-sized area. It was found that the production costs for more than 16 prefectures are below the production costs at export countries, and those for more than 22 prefectures are below the CIF price at Japanese Customs.

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