Global Issues Network, or GIN, works to raise awareness towards environmental issues and contribute to the global effort to solve them. The group consists of NIS high school students who seek to make an impact within their local community, particularly the conservation and preservation of nature.
For the past several years, GIN has been working with rice farmers in Toyooka City, Hyogo Prefecture, to reintroduce oriental white storks to Japan. The white stork had gone extinct in Japan during the 1970s, chiefly due to agricultural pesticides that contaminated rice paddies and destroyed local ecosystems. The storks suffered from a rapid loss of food and habitat, as well as diseases due to toxic substances accumulating within their bodies. This resulted in a nationwide decline in the stork population and the eventual extinction of the species in Japan.
Please access the Japanese Ministry of Environment's official website for more information.
You can support this project by purchasing rice that has been farmed in Toyooka using organic methods, such as reduced or no use of chemical pesticides.
During January and February of 2020, GIN is organizing a rice drive to sell the organic rice grown in Toyooka. Families in NIS can purchase the products using a paper form that has been distributed to students at school. All of the money earned will be given to the local Agricultural Cooperative (JA Tajima), who are working with farmers to develop a stork-friendly, biodiverse environment.
Ordered rice will be handed to the student within several days after the order form and money is given to their homeroom teacher. If our stock of rice runs out before February 28, GIN will order additional bags from the makers in Toyooka. We ask for your patience on such occasions; your order is likely to arrive within one or two weeks. If students in ELC, kindergarten, or elementary are unable to carry the rice bags home, parents will be required to pick up the rice at their child’s classroom, where the homeroom teacher will have it stored.