EPF (Environment, People and Food) -also known in English as "Sendai Committee for Environment and Food"- was established in 1993 under the auspices of the Kahoku Shimpo, the most widely circulated local paper in the Tohoku District of Japan. It was just after the founders of EPF and the reporters from the paper participated in the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, hoping to raise the local people's awareness toward environmental issues. Since then, it has been a non-government organization that deals with various environmental issues from local to global realms. In 1998, it became independent from the publisher and relocated its headquarters in downtown Sendai with new staff and volunteers.