As environmental issues such as global warming become issues that require urgent solutions, agriculture is required to deal with environmental issues more than ever. In Japan, “Strategy for Sustainable Food Systems” has been formulated, and efforts have begun to respond to the global movement to reduce the environmental burden of agriculture. Agriculture has been grappling with environmental issues for a long period. However, agriculture is required to grapple with environmental issues at a higher level than in past. the level of grappling. In this symposium, we will confirm the achievements and challenges of grappling with environmental issues in agriculture to date and consider the future direction for farm management to grapple with environmental issues.

Organic agriculture emerged in the 1900s–1940s, yet it was not until the 1970s that significant progress began to emerge. The rapid spread observed since the 1980s can be attributed to three main factors: i) the limits of postwar agriculture, characterized by the widespread use of agrichemicals, became evident, prompting a demand for alternative farming practices from within agricultural management; ii) the technical and economic potential of organic agriculture was verified by farmers’ practices; and iii) the imperative for sustainable development (SDGs). The surge in organic agriculture not only impacts agricultural technology and management structures but also influences economic organization, food trade, food security, and the formulation of international regulations governing food and agriculture. These changes may indicate a paradigm shift in the agricultural landscape.

In Japan, the advancement of organic agriculture manifests in several ways: i) According to the 2020 agriculture census, organic farmers accounted for 6.4% of the total, with organic farmland occupying 3.6% of agricultural land across family farms, agricultural corporations, prefectures, and almost all crops. ii) Organic agriculture is not only suitable for small farmers; some organic farmers manage land ranging from several hectares to hundreds of hectares. iii) Farmers with a 100% organic share of the total farming land accounted for 38% of organic farmers in 2020, and over 50% of organic farmland share reached 67%. Many farmers with several hectares to hundreds of hectares are found in the category of farmers with over 50% organic farmland share. iv) Innovative practices in farming, marketing, and farm management are adapted in organic agriculture.

Three factors hinder the expansion of organic agriculture: i) Preconceived notions that “organic agriculture is difficult”: ii) Ambiguous agricultural policy marked by complex farm product labeling systems and: iii) Insufficient research efforts dedicated to organic agriculture.

Amidst the spread of the new coronavirus, the EU launched its “Farm to Fork” strategy in May 2020, setting a goal of increasing the proportion of agricultural land area from organic agriculture to 25% by 2030. This report presents the current state of organic agriculture and support measures, primarily focusing on Germany, which has aimed even higher, targeting a 30% increase above the EU’s organic agriculture goal by 2030. Additionally, it explores policy support for environmentally friendly agriculture, including organic agriculture, within the EU.

As of 2020, Germany boasted 1,698,764 hectares of agricultural land dedicated to organic farming, constituting 10.2% of the total agricultural land area. The number of organic farms totaled 35,413, representing 13.4% of the total. Sales of organic food in Germany stood at EUR 14.99 billion in 2020, marking a 22% increase from the previous year. German states, in collaboration with the EU and Federal Government, provide financial support for organic farming. Moreover, there is a wide range of support for organic farming, ranging from guidance provided by the Chamber of Agriculture, federal research institutes, university laboratories, and Biofach, an organic farming trade fair. It is worth noting that the “Farm to Fork” strategy, developed by the EU, transcends the boundaries of internal departments such as agriculture, health and consumer protection, and climate change. This approach has sparked debate at the national and regional levels, particularly in countries like Germany, as stakeholders strive to achieve the strategy’s objectives.

This study offers a comprehensive investigation into the viability of harmonizing environmental conservation with economic viability in the agricultural sector. First, we delve into historical endeavors to strike this balance and outline the strategy for sustainable food systems (the Strategy MIDORI), Japan’s foundational policy for promoting sustainable agriculture and food systems. Next, we introduce various methods and targeted initiatives aimed at achieving both environmental conservation and economic viability, while assessing the requisites for realizing this equilibrium within the agricultural sector.

Even in farm management, environmental conservation should no longer be a concern solely for environmentally inclined farmers but should necessitate engagement from every farmer. To achieve sustainable farm management in the “VUCA” era, which is characterized by uncertainty, it is important to fully consider how to cope with emerging risks as well as how to balance the environment and the economy. While economic viability is competitively dealt with at the farm management (micro level), environmental conservation requires cooperative and collective (macro level) actions among certain groups such as communities, municipalities, and regions. Balancing microcompetition and macrocooperation is key to achieving both environmental conservation and economic viability. Running a business considering only one factor, such as profit maximization, is outdated. Future farm management must account for many more factors beyond environmental conservation and economic viability, necessitating farm managers to consider risk management. This will require a keen sense of capture of the latest trends and the exercise of discernment in making well-balanced management decisions.

This paper undertakes an analysis of Japan’s largest organic grain farmer, the Kanazawa Daichi Group, which has highly social and environmental management principles akin to Japan’s organic farming movement since the 1970s. However, the group distinguishes itself by pursuing scale expansion and vertical diversification, in contrast to the movement’s small-scale and horizontally diversified approach. The analysis focuses on two key objectives:

(1) To clarify the process of management behavior and development in the pursuit of scale expansion and vertical diversification, and to identify the management principles that drive this process. In essence, it aims to identify the factors (management principles) that differentiate the Kanazawa Daichi Group from the organic farming movement described above.

(2) In addition to examining the outcomes of scale expansion and vertical diversification, this paper evaluates the efficacy of organic production methods to uncover the factors contributing to a high level of sustainability, particularly economic sustainability.

The findings are as follows:

The primary factor driving the scale expansion was the pursuit of the management principle centered on a mission to “eliminate abandoned farmland” and “create local employments.”

Efforts to control weeds and pests under pesticide-free cultivation have not been successful. However, Imura views the increased risk of weed growth, disease and insect infestation, and yield reduction, as well as the associated losses, as “expenses for ecosystem conservation.” The pursuit of economic efficiency through vertical diversification has yielded a profit buffer that surpasses these expenses, thereby ensuring the maintenance of economic sustainability.

Agriculture is heavily influenced by the conditions of the natural environment. Consequently, abnormal values may appear in agricultural production indices, such as yields and working hours. In addition, these indices may lack symmetry in data distribution. In farm management, mode is the preferred choice for standard value and can be considered as the true value of production indices. However, previous studies have reported that the conventional mode calculation method involves creating a histogram for calculation. The obtained mode value is not unique and depends on the selection of anchor positions. Although some of the available methods for calculating mode do not rely on histograms (e.g., kernel density estimation and core median methods), each method has its own disadvantages and limitations. Therefore, we have developed a new, practical mode estimation method that uses the alternate optimum mean (AOM) without histograms. AOM refers to the mean of the alternate optimal solutions of the location parameter having maximized rectangular frequency function. A spreadsheet software was employed to estimate AOM. Moreover, this paper presents both the advantages and the points for consideration when using AOM for actual farm production data.