At Supermarket in Nakajima

Simply, they are vegetables or fruits that grown without any agricultural chemicals. But is is not that simple. As the organic Market is growing bigger and bigger, consumers wanted to define the meaning of the term "organic".

And to be labeled as "Organic Farm Products", farmers must not use pesticides or chemical fertilizers for his plants. Who decides the labeling? Good questions! The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries(MAFF) does. So when my father decided to be an Organic farmer, he couldn't be so because of the regulation. And he was asked many questions like what kind of agricultural chemicals he used before, or how distant his orchards are from others which used chemicals.

Reduced-chemical Products mean Organic-like-Products. Here are some examples to give you ideas how much they usually cost here in Japan. You can see the green labels on the top of each pictures. It says they are shipped directly from production areas and agricultural chemicals are less used.

Apples Used Less Chemicals

Fuji Apples LEFT $3.00 for 3 Fuji Apples RIGHT $11.00 for 3 kilograms

Carrots with Dirt $1.00 for 500 grams This might be an interesting point of view. Japanese consumers tend to prefer roots vegetables with DIRT(!). This might come from an image of vegetables grown organically, means more organic compose like manure...

Carrots Used Less Chemicals

Onions Used Less Chemicals

Onions $2.00 for 800 grams

Common Vegetables 1/2 Cabbage for 70 cents 1 pack of Mushrooms for 90 cents 1 pack of Bell Peppers $ 1.10 1/2 of Pumpkin imported from New Zealand $ 1.15

Common Vegetables