In 2009, CEAS faculty were among those involved in a project called “Nurturing Communities Through Local Foods Networks,” with support from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership.

The project was created to develop innovative responses to problems in modern food systems through cross-cultural dialogues between farmers, NGOs, and policy makers in two agricultural heartlands: the Kansas River Valley, centered in Douglas County, Kansas, and Saitama Prefecture in Japan (northwest of Tokyo).

The project co-directors were Patricia Graham, Research Associate, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Kansas, and Dan Nagengast, then director of the Kansas Rural Center. Japan side coordinators were Satoko Miyoshi, of IFOAM Japan, and Takao Shibata, the former Consul-General of Japan for Kansas City.

You can still see the project's original website, as captured by the Internet Archive, and download a short list of suggested readings (PDF) from the project, with material related to organic farming and local foods in Japan.