On September 11th, near the towns of Miyota and Karuizawa in the prefecture of Nagano, VegeProject’s representative Haruko Kawano gave a lecture at Nagano Block’s 53rd special forum named “Roundtable starting from zero” and hosted by the Japan’s Junior Chamber International (JCI) of the Hokuriku and Shinetsu Districts of Nagano’s Block Council.
This forum was held in order “to create opportunities for the people and businesses of Nagano Prefecture to learn more about diverse dietary choices and various values systems”. In the context of promoting food choices, the representative of Japan Halal Business Association, director Tomohiro Sakuma, spoke about Islamic values regarding the halal diet. Then, VegeProject’s representative Haruko Kawano spoke about vegetarian, vegan, and plant-based diets. She explained the basics and gave many advices to allow business owners to take the first step into adding more vegetarian, vegan, and plant-based options to their menus.
On the same day, in the same town, there was a food festival also hosted by JCI. Within this festival, there was an activity called “This is a meat substitute, not real meat?! Let’s try it first!” where participants were able to taste meat substitutes.
This time, the meat substitute that was introduced was the product Vegan Chunks of the company VegeFarm with VegeProject’s vegan certificate. This product is gaining a lot of popularity as an alternative for beef.
To everyone who participated in the events, it would be an honor if this day was a day where you could taste and learn more about many vegetarian, vegan, and plant-based foods. And to everyone at JCI Nagano, thank you very much for this opportunity.