The Birth Episode of Yamanashi "Koshu Wine Beef" - In the Historical Background of the 1990s

The Birth Episode of Yamanashi "Koshu Wine Beef" - In the Historical Background of the 1990s

From the 1970s to the 1990s, Japan's system of mass production and mass consumption during its period of rapid economic growth was undergoing a turning point. Awareness of environmental issues was growing, and "zero emissions" and "recycling" were becoming keywords in society. At such a time, the efforts of Masanagi Sueki, a dairy farmer in Yamanashi, attracted attention as a pioneering attempt to recycle local resources [7†source].

Mr. Sueki began raising beef cattle in 1957, and as he continued his research on feed, he focused on waste materials such as "okara" and "wine lees. Wine lees, in particular, are a by-product of Yamanashi, a region that produces a large amount of wine lees in the neighborhood, but at the time, they were discarded. The company's founder, Mr. Kikuchi, said, "If you use something that should be thrown away, it is meaningless if it costs a lot to process and transport it. On the other hand, wine lees can just be mixed as they are." His words ooze practical rationality and the humor that only a farmer can have. This symbolizes the attitude of trying to make use of nature's blessings without waste, while placing importance on efficiency [7†source].

In the aftermath of the rapid economic growth of the 1970s, "economic efficiency" was the supreme value in Japanese society. However, from the 1980s onward, pollution and waste disposal problems became apparent, and in the 1990s, people began to talk about transitioning to a "sustainable society. The zero emissions concept proposed by the United Nations University became a hot topic, and the idea of "clustering" between industries, or reusing waste from one industry as a resource for another, began to spread. A typical example of this was the "Koshu Wine Beef" from Yamanashi [7†source].

Wine Beef, which made its debut in 1991 as a brand name beef, was eventually produced at eight farms in the prefecture, and by the mid-1990s had grown to a scale where nearly 2,000 head of beef were shipped annually. It was not just a "local brand beef," but also resonated with the context of environmental policy and regional revitalization at the time, in that it reduced the environmental burden through the use of waste products and realized a cycle in the local economy. And in 1997, the Kofu Chamber of Commerce and Industry awarded the company its Environmental Contribution Award, making it a symbol of the compatibility between the environment and the economy [7†source].

This episode is conveyed through conversations between farmers and through Sueki's storytelling. The honesty and humorous expression of the story gives us a sense of the breath of the people who created a "new relationship between the environment and the economy" that responds to the demands of the times, from the local scene.