"Premium Agriculture and Food Project"--- Premium Agriculture and Food lead to healthy rural areas and world ---International Symposium on Agricultural Education for Sustainable Development (Ag-ESDSymposium) organized by the Agricultural and Forest Research Center (AFRC) of University ofTsukuba has been held annually from 2008. The principal of Ag-ESD is to promote education andenlightenment activities for sustainable development of agriculture, farm villages, and the worldfrom the viewpoint of rural areas.

One of the most important issues in the 21st century is elimination of differences in poverty andwealth between developed countries and developing countries, as well as within developed anddeveloping countries. Except for a few developed countries, farm villages are generally poor incomparison with urban areas. Therefore, efforts should contribute to the enrichment of farm villages
in rural areas. Each country and each rural area must understand their climate and environment,
cultivate a love of their countries, and seek high quality agriculture, food and environment throughtechnology transfer and globalization to bring coexistence throughout the world.

The world is changing continuously. If the changes can be divided into Yang and Yin, the society ofYin in some developed countries with problems of population decrease and aging will gently shift toa society focused on farming, production and consumption of local farm products, networking
society, intergenerational ethics, environmental ethics and other similar activities (Fig. 1). To attain asociety of Yang and Yin with happiness, monetary stability andsome competition, efforts fortechnological development are required (Fig. 2). Furthermore, education and research organizations
are expected to commit to and promote "Premium Agriculture and Food" as a powerful tool torealize development of an ideal society in the future.

The theme of Ag-ESD Symposium 2014 is "Agriculture and Food Premium Project". We lookforward to fruitful discussions during the symposium through the cooperation of not only
universities, but also research institutes, government offices, private companies and other interestedparties.

Executive Committee of Ag-ESD Symposium 2014
Ryozo Noguchi

Fig. 1. Philosophical cycle involving agriculture, energy and the environment

Observatory
Apricot
CherryPlant factory
Meteorologicalobservatory
equipment

LightSolar panel
Workshop

Soil wall
Wind turbine
E.V. Tractor
Heliograph
GardenOya stone
Strawberry house

Green fence
Field
Walk way
Keyaki
Water place
Vineyard

Cherry blossom ofLawn

BenchLawn
Sign

Fig. 2. Conceptual design of a farmer's house and field for a sustainable village(Courtesy of Busujima Architects)

「Premium Agriculture and Food Project」の概要「質高め，皆が潤う幸せかな」「農業と食料食品の価値を高め，農村・地域から世界を豊かにする．
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筑波大学農林技術センターは，1979 年から開催された Tsukuba Asian Seminar on AgriculturalEducation (農業教育 Tsukuba -Asia セミナー：TASAE) を前身として，2008 年から InternationalSymposium on Agricultural Education for Sustainable Development (Ag-ESD Symposium：持続的開発のための農業教育国際シンポジウム)を毎年開催している．Ag-ESD の理念は，農村社会からの視点による，農業農村の持続的開発のための教育，啓発活動を目的としている．
21 世紀の大きな課題の一つは，先進国と途上国の間の貧富の差や，先進国内部，途上国内部にそれぞれある貧富の差の解消である．現在，一部の先進国を除いて，農村は，都市に比べて貧しく，農村を豊かにすることが課題解決の鍵である．したがって，各国，各地域はその風土や環境を理解し，国土を愛する気持ちを涵養し，技術移転とグローバル化により，農業の価値を高め，食料食品の価値を高め，農村社会全体の価値を向上させ，生産地としての農村と消費地としての都市，先進国と途上国との，共存，繁栄を目指すことが求められる．
世界は絶えず動いている．陽と陰に分類するならば，これからの社会は，陰の社会である
人口減，高齢化社会を抱えるいくつかの先進国を中心として，非農家の参画，地域の農産物，ネットワーク社会，世代間倫理や環境倫理を中心とした社会へと緩やかに移行していくであろう（図１）．陽の社会と陰の社会とともに，人間が幸せになるためには，あるいていどの貨幣経済や競争は必要であり，科学技術発展への努力は不可欠である（図２）．さらに，大学を中心とした教育研究機関が，Premium Agriculture and Food を推進することは，今後の理想的な社会の実現に，力強い役割を担うことになる．
今年の Ag-ESD Symposium のテーマは，Ag-ESD Symposium for Global Action Program であり，目的は，Agriculture and Food Premium Project である．日本国内にのみならず，世界中の大学，研究所，政府機関，企業など．多くの関係者のご協力により，実りあるプロジェクトになることを望んでいる．
シンポジウム実行委員
野口良造