Enjoy Special Lunch with 'Green' Vegetables at Ward Office

Copyright Asao Ward of Kawasaki City

Asao Ward of Kawasaki City in Kanagawa Prefecture has begun serving eco-friendly meals, called "Asao Special Lunches," as of June 2009 at "Restaurant Asao," a dining facility for ward officials and visitors on the fourth floor of the office. These special lunches include green vegetables cultivated in the ward using a fertilizer made from raw garbage.

This is a part of an initiative by the ward residents committee to encourage food education, as well as to reduce waste and to expand opportunities for locally produced food to be consumed locally. Under the project, raw garbage from the restaurant is taken to a plant at the Tokyo University of Agriculture Recycling Research Center and is recycled as fertilizer known as Midori-kun (Green Boy). The 10 kilograms of garbage produced each day at the restaurant can be converted into about 1.5 kilograms of Midori-kun. Cooperative farmers in the ward then grow crops utilizing the Midori-kun for use in the special lunches at the restaurant. According to the ward officer, this is the first such collaboration among local government, farmers, citizens and academia.

On June 19, 2009, the first day of the project, 70 dishes were prepared and sold. The restaurant increased the number of dishes prepared to 150 for the second event on July 17, and these were also sold quickly. The lunch price is 500 yen (about U.S.$5.15), and is served on a paper tray mat describing the origins of the food, recipes and the cycle of local consumption of local products, thereby providing ecological food information.

The restaurant will offer the lunch on/about 19th day of every month, which is a day dedicated to food education.

Kawasaki City Asao Ward official website
http://www.city.kawasaki.jp/73/73soumu/
foreigner/english/

Posted: 2009/10/27 06:00:15 AM