This mini-symposium was a good opportunity to get acquainted with “sustainable agriculture” and with “economics of food safety.”
　As Dr. O. DOERING stated in his presentation, it is fundamentally important to realize a fact that agriculture can be not only sustainable but also destructive to the environment, because agriculture is a system in which man alters or shapes the natural world for food production, primarily through cultivating the soil.
　It was impressive that Dr. O. DOERING told us that there was no single simple statement which could be made on the topic of this symposium, because he had found world agriculture so diverse in terms of both natural conditions and agricultural practices. Likewise, as many have suggested, problems to be solved in relation to “sustainable agriculture” seems to be “site specific.” This point of view may be extended to “region specific” of “country specific.”
　A proposal of a differentiated agriculture environmental policy presented by Dr. A. M. HEISSENHUBER, and economic analyses of low-input or organic farming examples presented by Drs. T. SATOH, T. MIYAZAKI, and S. ITOH were also very much informative and suggestive.
　On the other hand, it was really new and fresh for us to learn the concepts of “risk assessment” and “risk management” in relation to “Economics of Food Safety” presented by Drs. E. VAN RAVENSWAAY and T. ROBERTS. And, an objective observation about marketing of organic fresh produces and an advice to “sustainable agriculture sector” presented by Dr. R. COOK were also suggestive and valuable.
　However, there would still be many things to be explored in the field of “sustainable agriculture.” We have already know a fact that the area of “sustainable agriculture” has been basically interdisciplinary, so that we will need to confirm the facts concretely and scientifically, and we should be searching for alternative farming practices which will be feasible not only technologically but also economically.

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　This group focused its discussion on the various aspects of agriculture and environment in the urban fringe of both the developed and developing countries. Specifically, migration patterns, changing forms and functions of agricultural production in the urban fringe, land use and conservation, agriculture-environment interactions, externalities and land use planning, and policies were the areas covered.
　Agriculture in the urban fringe is traditionally recognized for its role in supplying agricultural commodities for the urban people. However, the recent trend of rapid urbanization has often distorted the farm management in the urban fringe. In the cases of Japan and Korea, for instance, the high earnings from multiple land use businesses highlighted the preference of farmers for multiple land use（i. e. farming combined with apartment, rental shop, parking space businesses）. This land use conversion in the urban fringe is expected to continue in the future and would adversely affect production if not properly checked. On the other hand, there is a prevailing view in the United States that the urban development does not pose a threat to national capacity to produce foods and fiber commodities. Technological change in the farm sector and in the wider non-farm economy has generated steady increases in farm productivity. Moreover, the dynamic shifts in land use have resulted in virtually no net loss in the total available cropland in the United States.
　While urbanization has created favorable impacts and positive externalities to the society, environmental improvements in the urban fringe such as restoration of ecologically balanced atmosphere, greenbelts and recreation are increasingly demanded by the public. The water, air, noise and soil pollutions coupled with the ecological imbalances and forms of negative externalities have caused dissatisfaction and alarm among the urban people. In Germany, although changes in agricultural land uses are determinated by a highly sectorized agricultural policy, there is usually no integration with environmental or other needs of the society. The same observation can be cited in other countries.
　To cope with the negative influences created by urbanization, several land use planning measures have been enforced by the many governments. These include zoning, capital gain, preferential property taxation, income support policies and land trust, right-to-farm laws, agricultural districts and farmland development rights. The impacts of these programs vary depending on the manner and degree of enforcement in the respective countries.
　Nevertheless, it is believed that through an integrated planning wherein transportation, communication and other economic factors are incorporated, land use planning measures can be made more effective.

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　Under the main subject entitled “The Role of Cooperatives in the Agricultural Development,” the discussion group was promoted and organized by the Agricultural Marketing Society of Japan.
　1）The main subject was further divided into four sub-topics as follows:（1）on organizing agricultural co-operatives in the process of agricultural development（the 1st session）;（2）on marketing of agricultural co-operatives for agricultural development（the 2nd session）;（3）on role of financing of agricultural co-operatives for agricultural development（the 3rd session）; and（4）on international co-operation within co-operatives for agricultural development（the 4th session）.
　2）Under the above-mentioned sub-topics, six speakers presented the reports as follows:（1）Z. OTAKA, “Sustainable Agricultural Development and the Role of Multipurpose Farmers Co-operative―Case Study in Japan”;（2）M. YAMAO, “Direction of Policy to Foster Agricultural Co-operatives in Southeast Asia”;（3）Y. MASUDA, “Agricultural Co-operative Marketing―Japan's Experience”;（4）T. ONO, “Comparison of the Role of Agricultural Co-operative Financing among Japan and East Asian Countries;（5）M. SHIRAISHI, “The Development of Co-operation between Agricultural Co-operatives and Consumers Co-operatives in Japan”; and（6）H. YAMAMOTO, “International Co-operation between Co-operatives for Agricultural Development―29 Years Progress of the Co-operation between Japan-Thai Agricultural Co-operatives―.”
　Many problems were reported and discussed, especially（1）on the advantage and possibility of Japanese type multi-purpose co-operatives as compared with Canadian single-purpose type co-operatives;（2）on possibility to establish the co-operation between different co-operatives and to orient the environmental farming;（3）on the conditions to transfer from the semi multipurpose co-operative controlled by government to the real multi-purpose co-operatives in Southeast Asia;（4）on the role and function of agricultural co-operative marketing under the changing conditions of wholesale market system and price policy;（5）on the relationship between co-operative financing and marketing in multipurpose co-operatives; and（6）on the conditions for successful co-operation between different co-operatives within countries and on international level.

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　Discussion in this group was focused on the following four points. 1）Why does the trade friction occur? 2）How is agricultural protection defined and what is the present situation of it? 3）How is domestic or regional（EC）adjustment problem coped with? 4）What is the new principle of adjustment to solve the agricultural trade friction problem?
　1）Overproduction of agricultural products comes from agricultural protection policies in both export and import countries such as price support, income compensation, trade subsidies and so on. Moreover, this problem is complicated by the aspects of international trade-balances between agriculture and industry, and political balance between export and import countries.
　2）Most reporters agreed to reduce the agricultural protection. However, there remains an issue whether agricultural subsidies for such reasons as environmental conservation and the preservation of social and cultural values are a protection cost or not and how to pay the cost to the farmer.
　3）Every country has many problems to solve in domestic conflicts. In U. S. A., there exists a contradiction between central government opinion（free trade）and that of the U. S. Agricultural Association（agricultural protection）. EC has a conflict among its member countries. Japan is also facing different opinions among people, regarding the rice problem. These domestic situations are very different between import and export countries.
　4）We must not underevaluate the effectiveness of free competition. But, free trade based on comparative advantage made economic structure concentrated into certain sectors and caused severe trade friction. And now it is a big problem how we should combine the externality of agriculture with the principle of international adjustment for trade friction.

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　The general topic of the present discussion group was “Development of Family Farms and Group Farming.” It was a mini-symposium which was set up under the auspices of the Farm Management Society of Japan, and was organized by the chairperson, Kenji CHO, mainly for a convenience of Japanese participants.
　As for “family farms” included in the general topic, it seems reasonable to state that family farms are the dominant type of farm organizations in either developing areas and highly developed countries in different parts of the world. They seem to have kept the steady position in agricultural industry from both economic as well as social viewpoints, though they are faced with many difficulties in existing as efficient and stable units of farming in the present highly mechanized and industrialized societies.
　However, family farms have not existed and developed independently, mainly because of the inelastic characteristics in their organizations of business factors and the relatively small size of businesses. If we try to define “group farming” in a wider sense than it is commonly used in Japan, the family farms have existed and developed in the various forms of cooperative and supplementary relations among farmers group in each local area. The managerial functions which have been supplemented by group farming of various types were varied by countries or by the stage which family farms reached in their course of development.
　We aimed to discuss in our discussion group the types, functions, problems and perspectives of the group farming with the participants that came from various parts of the world, dividing the general topic into four sub-themes, and taking up each of them day by day in the four sessions lasting for four days. The primary purpose was to learn from and to exchange the ideas and experiences of group farming issues in various parts of the world and in different stages of family farms in order to facilitate our future research and agricultural policies for this subject with which we are very much concerned in Japan. The sub-themes we took up for this purpose were（1）group farming issues in Southeast Asian countries,（2）in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, China,（3）in EC, and,（4）in People's Republic of China. The former three were the experiences in the countries or areas under the free market system and the last one was the issues in the country under the planned economy.

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