Masami Kojima, a reporter for the Mainichi Shimbun… initially took a negative position on GM crops, but now he is [an advocate]. We talked to Mr. Kojima about why he changed his mind.
…
Kojima: I often write about the import status of recombinant crops in articles, but the current situation is that 60 to 70% of people are not familiar with it. The other day, when I was talking to the director of commercial broadcasting, he didn’t know much about GM crops either.
In fact, Japan imports a large number of genetically modified crops. For example, we import 14.4 million tons of corn annually, of which about 10 million tons are genetically modified. In the case of corn, it is mostly used in cooking oil, livestock feed, and sweeteners in soft drinks such as cola. Since it is consumed in an indirect form like this, it may be difficult to see the actual situation.
In my mind, I used to have an image of a farmer becoming a puppet of a giant company but when I actually met the producer, that was not the case.
When I asked a farmer, there was a person who said, “I bought it from one manufacturer this year, but I may buy it from another company next year.” It’s like you don’t have to buy a car from the same manufacturer every time.
Share this article
…
I used to write biased articles, but now I intend to write articles after understanding the whole picture.
[Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Japanese and has been translated and edited for clarity.]
