Panellist
Born 1974 in Tokyo, Dr. Ryota Koyama completed his doctorate at the Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University in 2002. He became an Associate Professor at Fukushima University in 2005 and a Professor in 2014. He has been a Professor at the newly created Faculty of Food and Agriculture since 2019. He is also a member of the Fukushima Prefecture Fishery Restoration Council, a member of the governmental Subcommittee on the Handling of Treated Water from Radionuclide Removal Facilities, and a vice president of the Japan Society of Cooperative Studies. He specializes in agricultural economics, regional policy theory, and cooperative studies. Fukushima University is a member of the “Fukushima Network for Local Production for Local Consumption”, an inter-cooperative network of agricultural cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, fisheries cooperatives, forestry cooperatives, credit unions and worker cooperatives in Fukushima and Dr. Koyama is a member of its executive committee. Since the Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Power Plant Accident in 2011, he has been working with local cooperatives to build a soil screening system to prevent radioactive contamination and a food safety inspection system to be implemented through an alliance between production and consumption in order to create sustainable local agriculture and communities.