• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.620-635
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• 2017

This study was intended to identify the main factors responsible for the decline in purchase of imported agricultural and fish products after Japan's nuclear power plant accident in 2011 and to compare the effects on imported agricultural produce and imported fish products. Logit model and multiple regression model analyses were performed using consumers' survey data. Psychological and qualitative factors reflecting consumers' food safety awareness and purchasing preferences, which were extracted by Factor analysis, were included as the models' explanatory variables, along with socio-demographic and economic factors. The Logit estimation showed aged, married, and low-income households had significantly higher probability of reducing their purchases of imported agricultural and fish products. However, the multiple regression results pointed out that the actual rate of decrease of imported agricultural and fish products purchases were more significantly affected by non-socio demographic factors such as past experience of purchasing imported agricultural and fish products, future intention to purchasing Japanese agricultural and fish products, and the ratio of imported to domestic agricultural and fish products before the nuclear accident, as well as consumers' feeling of food insecurity and their purchasing preferences. Moreover, the results showed that Korean consumers have reacted more sensitively to the decline in imported fish products than imported agricultural produce after the nuclear accident based on the marginal effects of various socio-demographic and economic factors.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.835-837
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• 2006

The geographical origin of Tricholoma matsutake mushrooms was studied using near-infrared spectroscopy. Modified partial least-square regression analyses were used to discriminate geographical origin. Two-hundred fifty-six of 259 actual domestic Tricholoma matsutake were classified as domestic produce, Sixty of 81 actual imported mushrooms were correctly classified as imported, while the other 21 imported from North Korea were not clearly classified. The accuracy of geographical origin discrimination was 92.94% The correlation coefficient, standard error of calibration, and standard error of prediction from modified partial least-square regression analysis were 0.84, 15.10% and 18.30% respectively.

• Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.73-96
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• 2006

Today, producers of ginseng spray prohibited fertilizers or use excessive amount of fertilizers whereas distributers either claim that they are selling domestic ginseng when in fact they are selling imported ginseng, cheat on the age or weight of ginseng, or mix domestic and imported ginseng. In terms of quality in comparison with foreign ginseng, 90% of the people surveyed responded that domestic ginseng is more efficacious. When asked whether they would purchase foreign ginseng products when they become available in the market, only one of the respondents responded that he or she would purchase foreign ginseng whereas 50 respondents or 81% of the total surveyed responded that they wouldn't purchase foreign ginseng. About half of the respondents answered that when Chinese red ginseng, ginseng, or wild ginseng products cultivated with harmful fertilizers become available in the market, they would either reconsider purchasing ginseng products or stop purchasing ginseng products all together. In order to develop the ginseng industry 20 respondents (25%) chose the establishment of the standards, 33 respondents (42%) chose marking the place of origin, 15 respondents (19%) quality improvement, 7 respondents (9%) research on the efficacy, and 4 respondents (5%) said improvement on the storage methods as the important factors of the ginseng industry. Considering the fact that 77% of the respondents selected either the standardization or marking of the place of origin, the consumers seem to be demanding reliability in the distribution of ginseng products. Therefore, those people who work in the industry such as the producers, distributors and others should have a sense of mission to develop ginseng, which is a gift from God, and do their best to produce and distribute ginseng products.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.383-390
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• 2005

To evaluate the sensory characteristics of domestic or imported chilled and frozen bellies, twelve samples were purchased and tested Sixty panels of sensory evaluation were consisted of six groups by sex and age. Frozen bellies were no difference in flavor, taste and tenderness. However, many panels favor the juiciness and acceptability of imported ones significantly compared to those of domestic ones(P<0.001). Especially, frozen bellies from northern America were tended to be more accepted than other products. The imported ones were significantly preferred to domestic ones irrespective of age. The results of sensory evaluation of frozen bellies between imported and domestic ones were also confirmed by tested people. It was significantly preferred in domestic frozen bellies(P<0.05). However, one of the domestic from C company was not significantly different from northern products, but was more favor significantly than EU ones(P<0.05). According to the age of tested panels, 20's age preferred the domestic ones of C company. In contrast, the groups of 30's and 40's age preferred the northern American produce.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.341-350
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• 2019

Garlic is one of the most popular seasoning bulb vegetables in Korea and is the most commonly used food ingredient. However, the cultivation areas are decreasing every year as the price drops due to imported garlic, and labor is insufficient to produce garlic by conventional methods. Cultivation requires various tasks until garlic is harvested. Seeding is one of the important and laborious tasks; thus, mechanization is necessary. When seeding garlic, the sprout should face upwards; otherwise, it may rot or produce poor quality garlic. This study investigated the extent of growth of northern- and southern-type garlic in eight different positions. The results show when the roots were not planted properly, the stems were weak, and the garlic bulbs were small. A simple garlic planter was manufactured with a crank-press mechanism to plant garlic in an upright position. Using this machine, a three-fold experiment was carried out with 100 strips of garlic. The test results showed that 99.4% of the planted garlic strips were positioned upright or close to being upright, and 0.6% failed to take root. An image processing algorithm was developed to locate the root part of the garlic, and the result showed a success rate of 81%. A future study will develop an automatic garlic upright planting system with a viewing system.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.933-950
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• 2018

In Japan, Wagyu cattle include four Japanese breeds; Black, Brown, Shorthorn, and Polled. Today, the renowned brand name Wagyu includes not only cattle produced in Japan, but also cattle produced in countries such as Australia and the United States. In recent years, the intramuscular fat percentage in beef (longissimus muscle) from Japanese Black cattle has increased to be greater than 30%. The Japanese Black breed is genetically predisposed to producing carcass lipids containing higher concentrations of monounsaturated fatty acids than other breeds. However, there are numerous problems with the management of this breed including high production costs, disposal of untreated excrement, the requirement for imported feed, and food security risks resulting from various viral diseases introduced by imported feed. The feeding system needs to shift to one that is more efficient, and improves management for farmers, food security for consumers, and the health environment for residents of Japan. Currently, we are developing a metabolic programming and an information and communications technology (ICT, or Interne of Things) management system for Wagyu beef production as future systems. If successful, we will produce safe, high-quality Wagyu beef using domestic pasture resources while solving the problems of how to utilize increasing areas of abandoned agricultural land and to make use of the plant-based feed resources in Japan's mountainous areas.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.118-126
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• 2012

Korea's agriculture had many inherent problems. Korea is a mountainous country with only 22 percent farmland and less rainfall than most other neighboring rice-growing countries. A major land reform in the late 1940s and early 1950s spread ownership of land to the rural peasantry. Individual holdings, however, were too small or too spread out to provide families with much chance to produce a significant quantity of food. The enormous growth of urban areas led to a rapid decrease of available farmland, while at the same time population increases and bigger incomes meant that the demand for food greatly outstripped supply. The result of these developments was that by the late 1980s roughly half of Korea's needs, mainly wheat and animal feed corn, was imported. Korea's agriculture is facing a new round of difficulties from the inevitable process of market opening. Therefore, we have reviewed the agricultural status and soils in Korea how we can meet the coming issues with respect to production and prospect based on the government documents and articles published on the journals.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.17-26
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• 2010

Recently concerns have been raised due to the unbalanced supply of crops: the price of crops has been unstable and at one point the price went up so high that the word Agflation(agriculture+ inflation) was coined. Korea, in particular, is a small-sized country and needs to secure the stable supply of crops by investing in the produce importation at a national level. Investment in foreign produce importation is becoming more important as a measure for sufficient supply of crops, limited supply of domestic crops, weakened farming conditions worldwide, as well as recent changes in the use of crops due to the development of bio-fuels, influence of carbon emission on crops, the price increase in crops, and influx of foreign hot money. However, there are many problems with investing in foreign produce importation: lack of support from the government; lack of farming information and technology; difficulty in securing the capital; no immediate pay-off from the investment and insufficient management. Although foreign produce is originally more price-competitive than domestic produce, it loses its competiveness in the process of importation (due to high tariffs) and poor distribution system, which makes it difficult to sell in Korea. Therefore, investment in foreign produce importation is being questioned for feasibility; to make it possible, foreign produce must maintain the price-competitiveness. Especially, harvest of agricultural products depends on natural and geographical conditions of each country and those products have indigenous properties, so distribution system according to import and export of agricultural products should be treated more carefully than that of other industries. Distribution costs are differentiated into each item and include cost of sorting and wrapping, cost of wrapping materials, cost of domestic transport, cost of international transport and cost of clearing customs for import and export. So transporting and storing agricultural products generates considerable costs compared with other products. Also, due to upgrade of dietary life, needs for stability, taste and visible quality toward food including agricultural products are being raised and wrong way of storage causes decomposition of food and loss of freshness, making the storage more difficult than that in room temperature, so storage and transport in distribution of agricultural products needs specialty. In addition, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. However, existing distribution system of agricultural products is exposed to various problems including problems in distribution channel, making distribution and strategy for distribution and those problems are as follows. First, in case of investment in overseas agricultural industry, stable supply of the products is difficult because areas of production are dispersed widely and influenced by outer factors due to including overseas distribution channels. Also, at the aspect of quality, standardization of products is difficult, distribution system is quite complicated and unreasonable due to long distribution channels according to international trade and financial and institutional support is not enough. Especially, there are quite a lot of ineffective factors including multi level distribution process, dramatic gap between production cost and customer's cost, lack of physical distribution facilities and difficulties in storage and transport due to lack of wrapping containers. Besides, because import and export of agricultural products has been manages under the company's own distribution according to transaction contract between manufacturers and exporting company, efficiency is low due to excessive investment in fixed costs and lack of specialty in dealing with agricultural products causes fall of value of products, showing the limit to lose price-competitiveness. Especially, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. Second, among tangible and intangible services which promote the efficiency of the whole distribution, a function building distribution environment which includes distribution information, system for standard and inspection, distribution finance, system for diversification of risks, education and training, distribution administration and tax system is wanted. In general, such a function building distribution environment is difficult to be changed and supplement innovatively because its effect compared with investment does not appear immediately despite of its necessity. Especially, in case of distribution of agricultural products, as a function of collecting and distributing is performed individually through various channels, the importance of distribution information and standardization is getting more focus due to the problem of repetition of work and lack of specialty. Also, efficient management of distribution is quite difficult due to lack of professionals in distribution, so support to professional education is needed. Third, though effort to keep self-sufficiency ratio of staple food, rice is regarded as important at the government level, level of dependency on overseas of others crops is high. Therefore, plan for stable securing food resources aside from staple food is also necessary. Especially, governmental organizations of agricultural products distribution in Korea are production-centered and have unreasonable structure whose function at the aspect of distribution and consumption is quite insufficient. And development of new distribution channels which can deal with changes in distribution environment and they do not achieve actual results of strategy for distribution due to non-positive strategy for price distribution. That is, it implies the possibility that base for supply will become vulnerable because it does not mediate appropriate interests on total distribution channels such as manufacturers, wholesale dealers and vendors by emphasizing consumer protection excessively in the distribution of agricultural products. Therefore, this study examined fundamental concept and actual situation for our investment to overseas agriculture, drew necessities, considerations, problems, etc. of overseas agricultural investment and suggested improvements at the level of distribution for price competitiveness of agricultural products cultivated in overseas under five aspects; government's indirect support, distribution's modernization and distribution information function's strengthening, government's political support for distribution facility, transportation route, load and unloading works' improvement, price competitiveness' securing, professional manpower's cultivation by education and training, etc. Here are some suggestions for foreign produce importation. First, the government should conduct a survey on the current distribution channels and analyze the situation to establish a measure for long-term development plans. By providing each agricultural area with a guideline for planning appropriate production of crops, the government can help farmers be ready for importation, and prevent them from producing same crops all at the same time. Government can sign an MOU with the foreign government and promote the importation so that the development of agricultural resources can be stable and steady. Second, the government can establish a strategy for an effective distribution system by providing farmers and agriculture-related workers with the distribution information such as price, production, demand, market structure and location, feature of each crop, and etc. In order for such distribution system to become feasible, the government needs to reconstruct the current distribution system, designate a public organization for providing distribution information and set the criteria for level of produce quality, trade units, and package units. Third, the government should provide financial support and a policy to seek an efficient distribution channel for foreign produce to be delivered fresh: the government should expand distribution facilities (for selecting, packaging, storing, and processing) and transportation vehicles while modernizing old facilities. There should be another policy to improve the efficiency of unloading, and to lower the cost of distribution. Fourth, it is necessary to enact a new law covering exceptional cases for importing produce in order to maintain the price competitiveness; currently the high tariffs is keeping the imported produce from being distributed domestically. However, the new adjustment should be made carefully within the WTO regulations since it can create a problem from giving preferential tariffs. The government can also simplify the distribution channels in order to reduce the cost in the distribution process. Fifth, the government should educate distributors to raise the efficiency and to modernize the distribution system. It is necessary to develop human resources by educating people regarding the foreign agricultural environment, the produce quality, management skills, and by introducing some successful cases in advanced countries.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.43-70
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• 1994

Presently the concept of organic farming has not simply technical categories such as no agricul-tural chemicals and no chemical fertilizer but can be also extended to the categories of economics, food nutrition, environmental and philosophical aspects. Accordingly, in order to understand cor-rectly organic farming, it is necessary to look into the concept including these extended aspects. So the production and consumption activities of organic farming products are largely based on the fundamental philosophy of organic farming. That is, all the life that is included in an ecosystem has to live in symbiosis, which is based on life circulation principle. And if this circultaion system is destroyed, human life may be threatended. Farmers who produce organic farming prducts(organic farmer) receive price higher than general farmers. This study shows the gap of 46.9% in two products. Also, since the price of organic farming products is fluctuated less relatively, Organic farming pruducts can be competed against imported agricultural products in terms of food safety. And organic farming should be managed by crop rotation and composite farm management upon which the principle of material circulation is worked. This composite management is devided into 2 classes, which are individually livestock-have-composite management and regional composite management. These management method means that organic materials are crucial to maintain the structure and fertility and these organic materials are easily obtained from animal as by-products.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.29-35
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• 2010

To compare the quality of manufactured goods distributed in the domestic markets, 6 isolates of Dongchongxiacao products, namely, 4 Paecilomyces tenuipes specimens (J2P, 901A, 901B, and 901C), 1 Cordyceps militaris specimen (901D), and 1 Cordyceps sinensis specimen (CI-1), were analyzed for their physicochemical properties and sequence-structure relationships. P. tenuipes (J2P), a kind of Dongchongxiacao, was successfully inoculated on silkworms by percutaneous infection of Rural Development AdminstraionNam et al., 1999); fruiting bodies were then formed on the complete surface of the pupa. Since P. tenuipes (J2P) from silkworm larva was also proved to have remarkable pharmacological activities, it has been produced in bulk and has been successfully sold to buyers in the Korean market. Additionally, imitation products such as 901A, 901B, 901C, 901D, and CI-1 were sold simultaneously, resulting in deterioration of product quality. This research focuses on establishing quality standards to discriminate between the original and imitation products circulating in the market. The products obtained for the experiments included J2P, 901A, 901B, 901C, 901D, and CI-1; proximate analysis was performed for these products. The hosts and methods of conidia inoculation for proliferation of mycelia differed among the products. P. tenuipes (J2P) was proliferated in live silkworm larvae, and dead silkworm pupae were used to produce 901A, 901B, and 901C. On the other hand, 901D was produced on hulled rice medium. Quality analysis of C. sinensis revealed that CI-1, which was imported from China, smelled bad and proved to be a counterfeit with the fruiting body glued to the insect by twigs. The results of the proximate analysis of 901A, 901B, 901C, and 901D were similar to those of J2P with respect to the moisture content. Otherwise, J2P contained higher crude protein than 901A, 901B, 901C, and 901D, but contained very low fat. C. militaris (901D) and C. sinensis (CI-1) had low crude protein content-12.79% and 9.78% respectively-as compared to that of J2P, which was 62.38%. In contrast to the crude ash content of 6.4% in J2P, the crude ash content of CI-1 was 18.51% and this specimen was found to contain many impurities. phylogenetic analysis of P. tenuipes revealed that the sequence similarity of J2P, 901B, and 901C was in the range of 92.3~92.7%. Additionally, differences in the sequences were found at the positions 65 bp, 436 bp, 441 bp, 463 bp, etc.