Wishing all our partners, clients and friends a prosperous and opportunity-filled Year of the Dragon as we start the Lunar New Year season throughout Asia!
The Year of the Dragon has arrived!
Meros presents at RIKEN’s workshop on cassava and carbon sequestration
RIKEN‘s 2nd Cassava Workshop was held on January 31, 2024 on the topic of Cassava Research and Development for a Carbon-neutral, Recycling-oriented Society.
Meros’ Managing Director Chisa Ogura presented on ‘Global Trends in Commercialization of Carbon Farming and Soil Carbon Sequestration’.
Cassava is rarely produced in Japan, but the Japanese food industry is a major user of cassava. Today’s trendy tapioca drinks are a small part of this, and most is imported as cassava starch or chemical starch, which is used in various processed foods, including frozen udon and noodles, as well as in various industrial applications as an adhesive. Many Japanese researchers are involved in cassava research, ranging from genetics to soil science.
Compared to maize, soy and wheat, cassava is mainly grown in Asia and Africa, where smallholders are the main producers, so not only is decarbonization and regenerative agriculture still lagging, but overall, yield is stagnant. The importance of increasing productivity to meet growing demand for feed, biofuels, and food without increasing the burden on small farmers is extremely high.
We hope that the Japanese industry and academia can make a further contributions to increasing productivity and bringing opportunities for greater carbon sequestration through improved farming methods in the global cassava industry!
A big welcome to Meros’ new winter research assistant, Zhou Yunkai!
Zhou Yunkai, who goes by Shu in Japan, is a third-year student at Keio University studying economics. He is on a one-year exchange from his home university of Beijing Foreign Studies University and is taking this semester to work full-time at Meros. Shu wastes no time and has been accompanying our team to meetings at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), supporting research on seafood exports to China and starting to dig into China’s food security policy.
Shu discussed why he was drawn to Meros. “ I majored in Japanese at my university in China and was very interested in agriculture. I was trying to find an opportunity that would be a crossroads between these interests. So fortunately I found Meros. To be honest, I love Meros as a team with its diversity of different backgrounds, individuality, and global experience. In this way, Meros can solve challenges by providing insights from different perspectives and can be more open and cohesive.”
In the next few months he will be taking a deeper dive into the most recent developments in China’s food security as part of his independent research project. He has already proven himself to be an enthusiastic and quick learner with an incredibly proactive attitude.
“Working as a research assistant, I want to help the team as much as I can. And at the same time, it is a great experience for me to learn Meros’ methodology for solving challenges. I expect the first weeks will probably be hard, especially the process of learning technical terms in foreign languages. But I believe that with the effort and help from team members, I can accommodate myself to Meros quickly, and have a better understanding of the consulting business and agriculture trends.”
Shu has big plans outside of work this season too. “As a big fan of Japanese food, I was so excited to find there are numerous great restaurants near Meros. So apart from work, my first goal is to experience all of these great restaurants, especially ramen! I also plan to travel to Kyoto to enjoy the scenery – and of course experience Kyoto’s famous Ramen Street while I am there.“
You must be logged in to post a comment.