Fukushima high school students share their passion for their city.

Students from Iwase Agricultural High School in Fukushima Prefecture want to spread the message that everyone even small children are able to eat Fukushima's agricultural products with confidence and peace of mind.

This message comes from the fact that Fukushima Prefecture locally produced products continues to be shunned due to the reputational damage caused by the nuclear accident in 2011. Even still, the students are passionate about growing their own produce on the land they were born and raised. They started thinking of how they could help to achieve this. They concluded that in order to help people understand that the agricultural products from Fukushima Prefecture are safe, they decided to apply for a Global GAP Certificate, which is an international agricultural standard certification system.

This international standard is for agricultural producers who continuously practice food safety, work environment and environmental protection into their agricultural practices. Knowing that GAP-certified agricultural products have a high level of reliability worldwide, we began the initiative to obtain certification in Japan. By 2019, the number of certified items was the highest in Japan.

The high school students' desire is to continue to protect the agriculture of Fukushima Prefecture, because it will lead to the next generation of agriculture. To support their passionate activities, Happo-en signed an industry-academia collaboration agreement with Iwase Agricultural High School.

We are actively disseminating information through events and other activities with the aim of raising awareness of global GAP.