日本草木研究所

日本草木研究所 Nihon Kusaki Lab

日本の里山には海外のスパイスやハーブに劣らぬ原生植物たちがたくさんあります。例えば、フウトウカズラという日本の山の胡椒や、ニッケイといった和製シナモンの木、そしてヒノキや杉や黒文字といった香りの名木たち。しかしながら「里山植物資源＝建材」といったイメージがつよく、里山植物資源を食の観点から見直すプロジェクトはほぼ存在していません。日本草木研究所では、そうした里山植物資源がもつ価値に注目し、新たな付加価値を与え、ジンやシロップ、塩などの商品を発表しています。

Mountains of Japan are home to many native plants that are no less potent than foreign spices and herbs. For example, there are Japanese mountain peppercorns called futoukazura, Japanese cinnamon trees such as nikkei, and trees famous for their fragrance such as hinoki (cypress), sugi (cedar), and kuromoji (spicebush). However, there is a strong image that “mountain plant resources = building materials," and there are almost no projects to review plant resources from the viewpoint of food. Nihon Kusaki Lab focuses on the value of such mountain plant resources and has added new value to them, producing products such as gin, syrups, and salt.

#木を食べる #間伐材の有効利用 #Sustainable

https://nihonkusakilab.com/

捨てられるはずの間伐材のフェアトレードで森の経済循環を目指します。7種の魅惑の国産香木のうち、60%がスギやヒノキなどの間伐材。日本は国土の7割が山であるにも関わらず、木材自給率は41.8%。同時に多くの国産間伐材が、その価格の低さ故に市場に出ることなく放置されています。単に間伐材を使用するだけでは本質的な国産木材の需要創出には繋がりません。私たちは、日本全国の林業従事者と直接取引する中で定めたフェアトレード価格に準じて余剰間伐を正規価格で取引することで林業従事者を支援し、日本の林業の本来的な意味での活性化を目指します。
Aiming for economic circulation of forests through fair trade of timber that would otherwise be thrown away. Of the seven types of fascinating domestic fragrant woods, 60% are thinned wood from cedar, cypress, and other trees. Although 70% of Japan's land area is covered by mountains, the self-sufficiency rate for timber is 41.8%. At the same time, a large amount of domestically produced thinned timber is left unmarket due to its low price. Simply using thinned wood is not enough to create demand for domestic timber. We aim to support forestry workers and revitalize the Japanese forestry industry in its original sense by trading surplus thinned timber at regular prices according to fair trade prices established through direct dealings with forestry workers throughout Japan.