For 3 1/2 years, Kei Icawana has grown vegetables near the city’s elevated train in western Tokyo - and she says this is the future of agriculture, even in the world's densest city. About a thousand farms produce crops in Tokyo today, thanks to the 1992 Law on Productive Green Areas which provided a property tax break for keeping land for farming. The break lasted for 30 years, but the city government, which actively supports urban farmers, created the possibility of a 10-year extension with the Specific Green Area Act. Almost all the farmers who work on productive green areas - nearly 45% of Tokyo’s agricultural land - have sought extensions. Yoshimatsu Kato cultivates part of his land for people from his neighborhood, who tend and harvest their own vegetables there. Says harvester Natsue Mitsui, 49: “People are becoming more concerned about where their food comes from.”

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