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The growing importance of food safety to Japanese consumers and its implications for United States farmers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2009

Raymond A. Jussaume Jr
Raymond A. Jussaume Jr
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of Rural Sociology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-4006.
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Abstract

Consumer cooperatives in Japan, which is by far the United States' largest overseas market for agricultural commodities, expanded rapidly in the 1980s. Their recent success, according to Japanese reports, has been due to their responsiveness to increasing consumer demand for foods produced with minimal use of petrochemical inputs. I present data that confirm this claim by showing that the high level of concern that Japanese consumer cooperative members have about food safety is the main reason they give for joining cooperatives. I then discuss the significance of this trend for American agriculture, in particular whether Japanese consumer cooperatives could become a marketing channel for Americans who specialize in producing food with less intensive use of agricultural chemicals.

Keywords

Japanconsumer cooperativesfood safetytradeagriculture
Type
Articles
Information
American Journal of Alternative Agriculture , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 1991 , pp. 29 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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