MY FARM, Inc. has started offering "Vegeloop," a cultivation kit capable of reviving discarded vegetables that have become unmarketable due to damage from abnormal weather into new vegetables. Abnormal weather has been on the increase every year, beginning to cause adverse effects to vegetable production sites at a gradual pace - but not in a way that immediately alerts contemporary people living in urban areas to the gravity of the issue. Vegeloop has been developed with the aim of bringing this issue home.
Vegeloop has been created by recycling discarded vegetables, which would have been otherwise thrown away, drawing on Panasonic Corp.'s garbage-processing technology. Wrapped in a crinkled piece of paper, each Vegeloop kit contains compost of discarded vegetables of one species as well as a seed of the same kind of vegetable. By cultivating Vegeloop, you can revive the life of vegetables that have been damaged by abnormal weather. The cultivation kit is packed in special water-soluble paper printed in soy ink, which is harmless to nature, and is modeled after the original form of the vegetable it contains. By planting the whole of such a kit into the ground and watering it, you can enjoy vegetable cultivation at home in an easy and earth-friendly manner.
Vegeloop kits are supplied to vegetable stores and markets at various locations as "vegetables," and the proceeds are due to be recycled to the farmers as donations. In this way, Vegeloop cultivation does not only change the awareness of people who experience it but also subsequently support farmers who aim for sustainable production of vegetables.
Find out more about MY FARM and the Vegeloop process here (in Japanese).