Food Risk and Farms in the Next Generation: Issues and Perspective

The objective of this paper is to consider the issues which farms should solve in order to reduce food risk, and to give a perspective of the farm of the next generation from a mid/long-term aspect. The food risk can be classified into the food pollution risk and the food shortage risk, and the integrated analysis and consideration are given. The result shows that the international GAP is required to manage food pollution risk, and the information management as a new farming operation is needed to achieve it. From this aspect, characteristics of both family farms and agricultural enterprises are clarified. The latter have advantages in the field. On the other hand, to discuss food shortage risk, the long term aspect of both demand and supply of energy and nutrients for the entire country is essential. The fundamental concept needed for this is proposed. Furthermore, it is statistically clarified that an agricultural enterprise increases the role of the major supplier. It is also clarified that the ordinary profit rate of agricultural enterprises in rice farming is higher than that of small and medium-sized enterprises in non-agricultural industries on average. A portion of the profit comes from agricultural policy, however.