PWRI Web Magazine Editorial Staff
P.R. Managerial Meeting
<Tsukuba>
General Manager: Dr.Kazunori Wada, Representative managers: Mr. Eiji Aoki, Ms. Harumi Moriki, Mr. Toshio Yarimizo, Mr. Masuo Kondo, Mr. Minoru Kikuchi, Managers: Mr. Yoshiaki Sato, Mr. Takahiro Yamanashi, Mr. Akira Kamakura, Mr. Takayuki Ayabe, Ms. Yuko Nagaya, Mr. Yuya Kato, Mr. Junji Kato, Dr. Masatoshi Denda, Mr. Hiroki Sakamoto, Mr. Takeshi Shimizu, Mr. Nobuharu Isago, Mr. Yoshikazu Shimizu, Mr. Yasushi Josen
<CERI>
General Manager: Dr. Atsushi Yoshii, Managers: Mr. Hiroshi Ota, Mr. Satoshi Mori, Mr.Yoshio Ninomiya, Mr.Morito Takahashi, Mr. Hiroyasu Kyoshi, Dr. Motoki Asano, Dr. Yoshiaki Hideshima, Mr. Yukinori Outi

Editor’s Note

I plant a variety of fruits and vegetables, including cherries, strawberries, grapes, blackberries, eggplants, string beans, cucumbers and asparagus, in my garden. Some people think that it must be hard to look after so many plants, but I don’t look after them at all. I don’t trim branches of fruit trees and leave vegetables untouched after planting their seedlings. The only thing I do is buy horse manure from a nearby farm with many horses, to spread after the snow thaws. Even then, I can get a considerable amount of harvest in summer and autumn.
There is a term called “whole food.” It is a concept in which a variety of things exist in balance to form a whole living thing, and that it is desirable to consume food without losing such balance, in order to keep the balance in human bodies. It is supposed to be healthier to eat fruit with the skin on, or animal meat together with the organs. However, shops may sell fruit with chemicals on the skins, or animal organs in which toxic substances from chemical feed have accumulated, making us reluctant to eat them whole. On the public open days at CERI, the Rural Resource Conservation Research Team organized a hands-on experiment program for visitors, entitled "Is soil alive?" Emissions of carbon dioxide from farmland soil are proof that microbes living in the soil are working hard to cultivate it. Many participants were surprised by the experiment, as they didn’t know that soil is alive. As demonstrated by my garden, good crops can be produced without using chemicals, if a good environment for microbes to work is created.
The Civil Engineering Research Institute for Cold Region is also engaged in research on agriculture in Hokkaido and other cold, snowy regions. We are striving to establish stable food bases through provision of fertile farmland soil that produces crops that can be eaten in their entirety.
(Hirofumi Kitsuta)