Friday, July 15, 2011

84 Additional Meat Cows That Ate Radioactive Hay Already Shipped to 5 Prefectures

In one case, the rice hay that the cows ate had 500,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium.

Professor Kosako's "chaotic harvest season" must be now.

84 more meat cows from Fukushima that ate highly radioactive hay were discovered by Fukushima Prefecture, as the prefectural government started to test rice hay fed to the cows.

From Mainichi Shinbun Japanese (2:41PM JST 7/16/2011):

福島県は16日、新たに放射性セシウムを含んでいたとみられる稲わらを食べた肉牛84頭が、福島県内を含め東京、埼玉、山形、宮城の5都県に出荷されていたことが分かったと発表した。

Fukushima Prefecture announced on July 16 that 84 additional meat cows that had been fed the potentially radioactive rice hay were shipped inside Fukushima, and to Tokyo, Saitama, Yamagata, and Miyagi Prefectures.

 福島県によると、出荷した畜産農家はいずれも県内で、▽郡山市2軒▽喜多方市2軒▽相馬市1軒--の計5軒。このうち郡山市の農家に残っていた稲 わらから1キロ当たり50万ベクレルの放射性セシウムを検出した。ほかに、相馬市で12万3000ベクレル、喜多方市で3万9000ベクレルの値だった。

According to the Fukushima prefectural government, the cattle farms were located in Koriyama City (2 farms), Kitakata City (2 farms) and Soma City (1 farm). The rice hay from one farm in Koriyama City tested 500,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. In the farm in Soma City, the hay had 123,000 becquerels/kg cesium, and in Kitakata, 39,000 becquerels/kg.

These cities are much further away from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant than Minami-Soma City, where the first case of radioactive beef was traced back.

Distance and direction from Fukushima I Nuke Plant:

  • Koriyama City: 60 kilometers, west

  • Kitakata City: 105 kilometers, west by northwest

  • Soma City: 43 kilometers, north

If the rice hay left on the rice fields accumulated that much radioactivity, particularly in Koriyama, it is definitely not fit for humans to remain. Not to mention the rice field is not fit for growing rice, though it is far too late, as the rice fields in Tohoku are already long planted.

10 comments:

mike in tokyo rogers said...

Glad we stopped basically eating beef long ago. Might buy some beef from the local grocer if it is Aussie or New Zealand... Never buy US beef... Now, won't buy Japanese beef either....

Anonymous said...

I especially like 'the potentially radioactive rice hay' mentioned by the Fukushima Prefecture.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Becoming a vegetarian seems to be the way to go. Just pick vegetables grown in southern Japan. A Fukushima farmer says in his tweet that 99.99% of vegetables in Fukushima is not checked at all.

@mikeintokyorogers, thanks for your comment re: AlexHiggins. Google somehow manages to put many non-SPAM comments into SPAM, and I fished out yours a few days ago.

Anonymous said...

@Arevamirpal:
Now why would Google be flagging certain items as SPAM when they are not ? ;)
It couldn't because they are being used to keep certain things as quiet as possible ?
I don't think its possible anymore to search the web without using Google, Bing or Yahoo in some way or another. It make it a lot easier to control.
You have a great Blog, and one of the only places on the Net where I can get info on Japan.
Thank you soo much, and keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

"In one case, the rice hay that the cows ate had 500,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium."

Ladies & gentlemen, for those of you who have never been near a farm, a kilogram of hay is not that much and seeing as these animals are prodigious eaters, THEY HAVE BEEN DOSED!

"If the rice hay left on the rice fields accumulated that much radioactivity, particularly in Koriyama, it is definitely not fit for humans to remain."

Most certainly not.

Anonymous said...

Let's assume one of the old-time 80lb. bales of hay in the U.S.

80 divided by 2.2 lbs per kilogram = 36 kg/ 80lb. bale

36 x 500,000 Bq/kg = 18 million disintegrations/sec of gamma radiation per 80lb. bale of hay !

DOSED

Anonymous said...

I wondered from the very beginning how they could still be selling beef from that area. I figured they must be keeping the cows indoors and feeding them imported grain. A cheap Geiger counter probably could have detected the amount of radiation found in that hay.

The way the government is handling this is making people lose confidence in ANY Japanese beef, wherever it's from. The government was trying to help the farmers by hiding the problem, but now they've only made the farmers' problems worse. I've noticed lately that some supermarkets have been carrying more produce from northern Japan. Maybe the demand for food from southern Japan isn't keeping up with the supply.

These problems will only get worse since now the government has lost what little credibility it had in regards to food safety. It's disgusting.

cgrl said...

Curious about the "Fukushima Trench" Water Watch... So the radioactive levels have been consistently rising... What is your imagined scenario..where that is leading? Anyway, I cut out milk, greens, mushrooms, a good percentage of beef. Bought up pre-Fukushima dog food, green powders, grains, dried mushrooms, etc.. Even the stuff in America is contaminated and in animal-based foods concentrated... (Definitely requesting local suppliers to carry more New Zealand and Australia meat and cheeses). it can only be a purposeful effort, because making these kinds of maneuvers, contaminating (even further) the food supply in Japan, well, you'd have to be an idiot to let that happen.

Anonymous said...

What about radiation in new or second hand cars exported from Japan, how safe are these ?

Anonymous said...

".. because making these kinds of maneuvers, contaminating (even further) the food supply in Japan, well, you'd have to be an idiot to let that happen."

TEPCO management appeared to be willing to abandon, simply abandon, the reactors after the tsunami, until 'convinced' by 'faceless' intl. partners to put a face on it.

And food supply safety is included in that abandonment. Note it is still being abandoned.

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