ＡＮＯＲ Newsletter byJORA (2006.7)

1.Activity:(1) ANOR Members: Our members as of July 1,2006 are 31organizations from following
16 countries and regions: Australia, China, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia,Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka,
Chinese Taipei, Thailand and Vietnam(2) Biomass Mark: JORA, with the cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestryand Fisheries (MAFF), is going to start, from Aug 1, 2006, after preliminary trailover 5 months, Biomass Mark business to certify or guarantee some products asbiomass-derived products by putting this mark on them with registration numberand percentage of biomass content
JORA, with the aim of building sustainable society, hopes to make biomass –derived
products more popular with consumers by utilizing this registered trademark.
(3) ORBIT2006: One of the most well known international biomass conference is going
to be held from Sept13, 2006 to Sept 15 at Weimar Germany and the number ofpresentation at the conference will be 200 or more. Please refer to www.orbit2006,
for detailed information of the conference program.
Dr. Chino, Chair of ANOR Steering Committee, will give a presentation on biomass
composting at this conference with other 5 participants from JORA and we’ve foundthe name of Dr. Anton Perera, University of Ruhuna, Sli Lanka, one of ANOR newmembers on the participant list.
2. Information:(1) Evaluation of Biomass Nippon Strategy by Japanese Government:
On March 29,2006, MAFF released an evaluation report on Biomass Nippon Strategy.
According to this report, the overall utilization of waste biomass increased from 68 to 72
percent (carbon equivalent), and the recycling rate of food waste increased from 10 toabout 20percent.
In order to reach the goal of this project, this report specifies following 5 action plans.
＊To reduce the food waste volume and increase the ratio of sorting of domestic waste＊To enhance the use of forest residues for industrial production and energy sources＊ To realize stable and low cost production of energy crops and to till them onabandoned farmland＊To foster human resources for realizing the Biomass Town Program＊To establish production system for biomass-derived plastics
On March 31,2006, the Japanese Cabinet approved a revision of this strategy whichview that it is important to promote the use of biomass energy for transportation,accelerate Biomass Town Program and strengthen biomass energy relation in Asiancountries.
1(2) Effort to create Recycling-Oriented Society in Asia:
The Senior Official Meeting on the 3R Initiative was held in Tokyo, Japan on March
6-8,2006 hosted by the Ministry of Environment of Japan as a follow –up to its
Ministerial Conference in April 2005.
The ministry is focusing on following three points which will be discussed at the G8
Summit which is going to be held in Japan in 2008.
＊Establishment of a Sound Material Recycling Society in Japan＊Cooperation with developing countries for promoting the 3Rs＊International cooperation for promoting the 3Rs(3) “Supermarkets and Gas Service Stations now competing for Grain”.
Followings are the excerpts from Earth Policy News by Dr. Lester R. Brown dated July
13,2006. Please refer to www.earth-policy.org/ in detail.
“Cars, not people, will claim most of the increase in world grain consumption this year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that world grain use will grow by 20million
tons in 2006.
Of this, 14million tons will be used to produce fuel for cars in the United States, leaving
only 6million to satisfy the growing food needs.
The amount of corn used in U.S. ethanol distilleries has tripled in five years, jumping
from 18million tons in 2001 to an estimated 55million tons from 2006 crop.
Since almost everything we eat can be converted to into fuel for automobiles, including
wheat, corn, rice, soybeans, and sugarcane, the line between the food and energy
economies is disappearing.
Crop-based fuel production is now concentrated in Brazil, the United States, andWestern Europe.
The United States and Brazil each produced over 4billion gallons (16billion liters) ofethanol in 2005. While Brazil uses sugarcane as the feedstock, U.S. distilleries use
grain-mostly corn. The 55million tons of U.S. corn going into ethanol this year represent
nearly one sixth of the country’s grain harvest but will supply only 3% of its automotive
fuel.
Brazil, the world’s largest sugar producer and exporter, is now converting half of its
sugar harvest going into ethanol, the price of sugar has doubled. Cheap sugar may now
be history.
For the 2billion poorest people in the world, many of whom spend half or more of theirincome on food, rising grain prices can quickly become life threatening.”

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