If Taka Yamaguchi has his way, athletes competing in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo will be eating organic an ambitious plan that more than 100 of Japan's top grocery retailers, food importers and distributors learned about at a recent Organic Trade Association (OTA) sponsored seminar in Japan.

Yamaguchi, executive officer of Organic Japan, was part of a roster of agricultural, organic and food industry experts and policy officials taking part in two capacity-filled OTA programs that brought industry and government leaders together in Tokyo and Osaka to learn about the range and quality of U.S. organic products, get up to speed on a bilateral trade deal that will help feed Japan's growing appetite for organic, and sample organic treats of grilled cheese sandwiches, vegetable burritos, ginger lemonade, and more.

With a grant for $784,902 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Market Access Program (MAP) to promote U.S. organic products abroad in 2015, OTA is gearing up a far-reaching strategy for next year that will include more organic promotional and education programs in Japan and around the globe.

OTA will be showcasing the American organic brand in the largest food shows in the world, conducting international seminars on organic regulatory issues, hosting trade missions to connect foreign buyers and domestic suppliers, helping retailers in the world's biggest markets sell the value of organic, and continuing to assist U.S. organic exporters with OTA's online U.S. Organic Export Directory and its Global Organic Trade Guide.

"Exports are increasingly important to U.S. producers and handlers. The organic industry is invested in building the relationships and U.S. organic brand awareness required for long-term export growth," said Laura Batcha, CEO and Executive Director of OTA. "The industry is poised to fully utilize the much-welcomed grant assistance from USDA provided through its Market Access Program."

So it's back to Japan for OTA in November of 2015, where OTA will conduct targeted promotion of organic products to consumers, and continue to build relationships with retailers and visionaries like Taka Yamaguchi.

And beyond Japan, OTA will be busy:

In Nuremburg, Germany, OTA will lead a contingent of more than a dozen U.S. organic suppliers attending the BioFach World Organic Trade Fair, the world's leading organic food trade show. OTA will showcase U.S. organic products in its large space within the USA Pavilion, and will lead a session while there on the important U.S.-EU organic equivalency arrangement.

In Seoul, South Korea, for the first time ever, OTA will participate in the Seoul Food and Beverage show. South Korea and the U.S. signed an organic equivalency arrangement in July, and demand for organic in the prosperous Asian country has never been higher.

In Cologne, Germany, OTA and representatives of the U.S. organic industry will have a highly visible presence at the preeminent Anuga food show, the largest food show in the world. More than 150,000 buyers from almost 200 countries attend the huge industry show, making it one of the most criticaland potentially profitableshows for the U.S. organic industry to attend.

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USDA Awards OTA With $785K to Promote Organic Products

TAIPEI - The Taipei City Government published the results of inspections on organic food products yesterday, saying that of a total of 997 products, 27 items failed to pass tests.

Fines and recall orders have already been issued to the companies involved, authorities reported.

After national food scandals were uncovered one after another in recent months, local governments have been strengthening food inspections.

The Taipei City Government said it has already issued fines to companies in Taipei that were responsible for seven products that were discovered to be mislabeled and failed to meet national organic standards. The total fine reached NT$300,000 (S$12,650), said officials.

Authorities transferred the 20 other cases to the relevant local governments in other cities and counties.

Kao Chen-yuan, an official from the Taipei Department of Economic Development, said the rate of acceptability in this inspection was 97.29 percent.

Of the problematic products, 22 were imported and five were local. If the same violation is discovered in these products in the future, the fine will be 150 percent higher than that issued this time, said Kao.

Kao also reminded food companies that for any products labelled organic, whether imported or locally produced, they should apply for legal certification from the Council of Agriculture and mark the certification number on their products.

Problematic Pesticide Discovered in Pingtung

Pingtung County Field Office of Investigation yesterday announced that it had uncovered 1,176 kilograms of a pesticide that is thought to contain illegal drugs after a report from a local farmer.

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27 organic food products fail to pass health probe: Taipei City Government

Jalandhar: Police deployment has been doubled at a dera or ashram in Punjab after tension over a High Court order to cremate a guru whose body has been kept in a freezer there for the last 11 months. His followers have refused to perform last rites insisting that Ashutosh Maharaj is in "samadhi" or deep meditation.

On January 29 this year, doctors had said that Maharaj was "clinically dead." His followers have since then not allowed anyone to inspect the body, which is kept in the freezer at the ashram in Nurmahal near Jalandhar. A dera spokesperson said they would appeal against the High Court's order this week to cremate the body within 15 days.

"We have decided to appeal against the High Court order to a double bench...we believe our guru is in deep meditation," he said.

The police report a significant increase in the number of people visiting the ashram every day. "Daily about 3000 followers are visiting the ashram...some 500-700 are present during the night," a senior policeman Satish Malhotra said.

He also said that there are seven or eight licensed weapons inside the ashram.

As the Punjab Police plans how best to implement the high court's order to cremate the body within 15 days, it says it does not want to take chances and will draw its lessons from the recent two-week stand-off at an ashram n neighbouring Haryana, where the self-styled godman Rampal had sequestered himself along with weapons, a private army and many followers to evade arrest.

Rampal's followers had clashed with the police, which had to storm the 12-acre ashram to arrest the controversial guru. Five women and an infant died during the stand off.

Ashutosh Maharaj headed the Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan sect, which allegedly has property and assets running into hundreds of crores. A man called Dilip Kumar, who claims to be Ashutosh Maharaj's son, had moved court seeking custody of his body to perform last rites.

Originally posted here:
At This Ashram, A Guru's Body in a Freezer, Angry Followers and Some Weapons