By Mike Callahan, U.S. Grains Council Senior Director of International Operations

When natural disaster strikes, it leaves in its wake a country and its people short of food, water and security. This was the case in 1959, when two typhoons devastated one of Japan’s centers of agriculture production, the Yamanashi prefecture. To help re-establish the prefecture’s once-robust hog production industry, hog and grain producers in Iowa, assisted by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, airlifted 36 breeding hogs and shipped tens of thousands of bushels of donated feed grain to the area. It was this “hog lift” event that laid the foundation for a prosperous trading relationship and partnership between the United States and Japan.

“Partners in Agriculture” is a commemoration of the phenomenal growth of the agricultural trade relationship between the United States and Japan over the past 50 years, as well as the celebration of the strong ties that have been built and will continue to foster successful trade for agricultural products in the years to come. Today, Japan is the largest commercial market for U.S. feed grains, pork, wheat, potatoes and rice, and will return to being the largest market for U.S. beef. It is also the world’s largest net importer of consumer ready food products. Japan’s purchases have been essential contributors to the health of the U.S. economy and will continue to be critical for the future of U.S. agriculture.

Through a series of “Partners in Agriculture” events, the Council will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the “hog lift,” which sparked the Iowa-Yamanashi Sister State relationship and, of course, the start of the U.S. Grains Council.

This exciting series of events was kicked of this week with a press conference at the FOODEX JAPAN trade show in Tokyo and will be followed by events in April including a “Global Food Security Symposium” on April 7, which is sponsored by the Council. It will feature some of the world’s finest minds in a discussion about how to leverage the past successes of cooperator program, and how to continue providing security for a growing population.

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