THE SEARCH FOR FOOD INNOVATORS CREATING A BETTER LIFEIn Memory of Sano Touzaburo

Niigata International Food Award
2nd Guidelines for Candidate Nomination

Rice field in Niigata

Niigata International Food Award Foundation
http://www.niigata-award.jp

Regarding theSano Touzaburo Memorial Niigata International Food Award

Purpose

About
Niigata

About
Touzaburo
SanoAward
Summary

Theme

Eligibility

The extreme inequality in the global supply and demand of food continues to make us worry, and the population ofthose who are unable to obtain the proper amount of food they naturally need to for their mental and physical welfare isincreasing. The problems of overpopulation, climate change, soil erosion, water scarcity, disaster and war and the impact
they have on securing a steady food supply can be felt throughout the globe. Faced with this reality, we establish theSano Touzaburo Memorial Niigata International Food Award to honor those whose achievements greatly contribute to
the peace and wellbeing of the world by improving the supply and quality of food, or by improving our understanding of
the role it plays in our health. With this award, we seek to eliminate poverty and starvation, and pray for a world where
each person can live a life of health and dignity.
Niigata Prefecture, one of the regions of Japan, is situated in the middle of the center of the Sea of Japan coast, and has
traditionally been a place where farming and food industries have ﬂourished. With its renowned rice, Niigata has become
one of Japan's leading growers of food.
Further, the prefectural capital, Niigata City is located 300km north of Tokyo facing the Sea of Japan coast, and, with its
many prosperous agricultural and ﬁshing enterprises, is proud to be one of the foremost rural-type cities in Japan.
The Niigata , in the award title, symbolizes the pride we have for the excellence in every food-related ﬁeld, from foodproduction, processing and distribution, to food culture, research, and education, that has been achieved in this region.
With a population of 800,000, much of Niigata City is composed of wetlands that sit below sea level, giving it a long historyof suﬀering and struggling with the elements of water and earth. Touzaburo Sano (1923-1994), worked to transformnumerous mud paddy ﬁelds, where the mud was waist deep, into more productive rice ﬁelds, thereby solidifying foodproduction foundation, and building future-oriented awareness. In addition, Sano also worked hard to improve farm
production in China, where he played a large role in developing the San Jiang plain at the request of the Chinese
government. We name the award after this great personage in our history, representing all those who worked to turnNiigata into a land of plenty.
This award can be explained as follows.
THE SEARCH FOR FOOD INNOVATORS CREATING A BETTER LIFE
For the above objective, we will be gathering nominations for the award from nominators from Japan and the rest of theworld from September through November. The established awards are as a general rule one main prize（an awardcertiﬁcate, a commemorative handicraft, and a monetary award of JPY ￥10 million）,and as a general rule one Tozaburo
Sano Special Prize （an award certiﬁcate, a commemorative handicraft, and a monetary award of JPY ￥2 million）, andas a general rule two The 21st Century Hope Prize（an award certiﬁcate, a commemorative handicraft, and a monetaryaward of JPY ￥1 million）. Candidates will be selected by a screening committee（Chairman/ Hideaki Karaki, Vice
President of the Science Council of Japan）, and the board of trustees will decide who the ﬁnal winners are. The prizes
are awarded once every 2 years, and the second award ceremony and commemorative lecture will be held in connection
on 23th, 24th, 25th, of November in 2011.
Food & Life is the basic theme of our awards.
There are countless people residing across the globe who ﬁnd their health and even their lives in peril because they areunable to secure enough food for themselves and the food they do have is non-nutritious, or even dangerous. We seek tohonor those who (individual, group and organization) are facing this reality, and saving lives, improving livelihoods, andrestoring dignity in the ﬁeld of food.
The category of food encompasses three ﬁelds ̶ ①Growing and Supplying/Provisioning ②Dietary Health ③Food
Education. The three interconnected ﬁelds must be addressed comprehensively. With the above prerequisite in mind,
the eligible ﬁelds for the main prize , and the special prize , are listed below. The words enclosed in parenthesis( ), are merely examples.
１ Main Prize（1） Technical applications for the ﬁeld of cereals & grains（preservation & processing, etc.）（2） Farming & Production （breeding, cultivation techniques & technologies, land improvement, soil erosion &desertiﬁcation prevention, irrigation, ﬂood control, etc.）（3） Distribution Systems （Development of stable supply systems, improvement of trade rules & regulations）（4） Food Safety （establishing and clearing links between certain foods and harmful health eﬀects, etc.）（5） Improving Food in Developing Countries（nutrition, safe drinking water, school lunches, etc.）（6） Improving Health Through Diet （Health eﬀects on food, an epidemiological study into disease prevention）（7） Food/Agricultural Education （schools, regional areas, industry education models & practices, fostering a spirit ofself reliance in the people of a country, technology transfer and follow up, etc.）（8） International Cooperation（Particularly the various activities of NGOs）（9） Other （real-world application of political, economic, social, or educational initiatives that contribute to the securityof the global food supply.）２ Special Prize（2 Categories）A Sano Touzaburo Special Prize（1） For contributions in increasing food production or security of the food supply base in developing countries.

（2） Achievements in creating & developing sustainable, self reliant agricultural models.
（3） Containing （1） or （2） and also contributing to achieve the eﬀective international cooperation.
#Special Note for Tozaburo Sano Special Prize① Tozaburo Sano Special Prize established to hope the appearance of the second and the third Tozaburo
Sano who would have inherited his indomitable spirit and high principle. Add to the present valuation, wegreatly expect the possibility of the achievement in the future.
② As a general rule, the candidate should not be the prize winner of the notable award.（ex. Nobel Prize,World Food Prize, Japan prize, Kyoto prize）
B The 21st Century Hope Prize（1） Eligible ﬁelds of contribution are the same as those listed for the main prize .
（2） Prize is awarded to a young person （below age 45） for outstanding research or achievements. And toencourage a candidate for joint research and development with the enterprises or the other organizations tocontribute for the world.
（3） This prize does not require that the candidate demonstrate repeated proof of the success of their researchor actions. Rather, it places more importance on thoroughness of research and planning, vision and future
viability.

（1） Candidates

Considerations

Nationality, ethnicity, gender, or religion will not be considered. The only criterion isthat the candidate be a currently living person. However, achievements made in theservice of a government agency or group will not be considered for the award unlessthe achievements of the individual or group in question went above and beyond theirresponsibilities.
（2） Nomination Limits
You can nominate up to three people for each prize. Organizations count as one person.
You can not nominate the same candidate to plural prizes at the same time. We accept
the unaccepted candidate of the ﬁrst award of 2010. In that case, please don't forget toadd the new achievement if there is.
（3） Nomination Form
To be ﬁlled out in English or Japanese. Please use our ﬁxed form and make it within 2
Form from our website.
pages. You can download theDocuments sent in will not be returned.
（4） Return of Documents（5） Private Information and the Case of Release
As a general rule, all information in the nomination will remain completely conﬁdential.
But there would be the case to release the contents with the approval of the nominee andthe nominator to promote the joint research, further development or the practical use.
（6） Self Nomination
The nominator may nominate his or her self.
（7） Deadline
Until the end of November, 2011.
（8） Submission
Please submit the nomination form either electronically or by mail to the oﬃce of theNiigata International Food Award. If you have supporting data, Please send by electronic
media such as CD or DVD.

（9） Contact（10）OtherScreening
Rules

E-mail：info@niigata-award.jp
Address：Niigata International Food Award Foundation
Niigata City Oﬃce Hakusan-ura Annex 1, 4F 1-425-9 Hakusan-ura,Chuo-ku Niigata-shi, Niigata-ken 951-8131 JAPAN
Fax：+81-25-201-8902
URL：http://www.niigata-award.jp（Nomination form can be download from the homepage）
Additional documents may be requested from you during the screening process.

1 Regional or individual eﬀorts, with universal applicability to the world.
2 The main prize in not meant to be an award to praise the value of anyone's academic research. It is an assessment ofachievements at the level of improving people's lives by making new discoveries and developing new technologies.
3 Long-term, sustainable initiatives, with a comprehensive, integrated outlook.

Screening
Committee
Chairman

Hideaki Karaki, PhD（Vice President of the Science Council of Japan, Professor Emeritus, Tokyo University）

TheFoundation

A gathering of volunteers from industry, academia, and government in Niigata Prefecture who, with the hope for peace
and prosperity in the world, formed a nonproﬁt foundation in March of 2009, The Niigata International Food AwardFoundation (Hajime Koizumi, Chairman of the Board of Directors), in order to establish an international prize in the ﬁeldof food. The foundation is not sponsored by a large corporation or a wealthy patron, it is run by numerous donations
from food industries, farmers groups, land improvement groups, and many other businesses and individuals in Niigata
Prefecture.

The First prize period "Niigata International Food Award"
Laureates
Main Prize
Dr. Monty Patrick Jones（Executive Director of Forum for Agricultural
Research in Africa）

Sano Touzaburo Special Prize
Prof. Yuan Longping（Chief Researcher of China National Hybrid Rice
Research & Dev. Center)

21st Century Hope Prize
Dr. Fumihiro Fujimori（Associate Professor of Tokyo Kasei University Domestic
Science Dept. Environmental Education Course）

Monument of Main Prize Springen
This monument called Springen

which is created by Prof.

Ryohei Miyata from Sado city of Niigata. He is work in themetalworker and president of Tokyo University of the Arts.
The theme of the craft work is Leap and Hope .
Two dolphins boldly jumping the air to go forward into the future.

Niigata International Food Award Foundation
Niigata City Oﬃce Hakusan-ura Annex 1, 4F 1-425-9 Hakusan-ura,Chuo-ku, Niigata-shi, Niigata-ken 951-8131 JAPANURL: http://www.niigata-award.jp

Email: info@niigata-award.jp

This brochure is printed in "Rice ink"
which made from rice bran.