Fukushima Rice All Cleared for Shipment, Radioactive or Not

because in the "main" test administered by the Fukushima prefectural government, none exceeded the stringent national provisional safety limit of 500 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium.

The highest was from a district in Nihonmatsu City, 470 becquerels/kg (page 9 of the linked PDF file). But not to worry, rice farmers of the particular district. The Fukushima prefectural government will buy up all your rice, according to Kyodo News English (10/12/2011), probably using the money from the national government (i.e. nation's taxpayers' money).

It's a win-win for Fukushima rice farmers who went ahead and grew rice. If tested for less than 500 becquerels/kg of cesium, they are all set to sell. If tested close to 500 becquerels/kg, the government will buy the crop. No information on what the prefecture is going to do with the rice it buys up, but I suspect it will find its way to the market eventually. It's a lose-lose for a minority of conscientious farmers in Fukushima who chose not to grow at all this year - no sales, no compensation. Good luck, consumers, finding radiation-free rice and fighting critics who tell you that you are selfish on insisting on clean food.

In the meantime, a tweet from a farmer in Iitate-mura who evacuated from the village says:

10月初旬飯舘帰村顛末記９：留守中依頼していた直播稲の放射能検査の結果が出ていた。驚くなかれ玄米で２１９４ベクレル/KGを検出し規制値の４倍強。 あまりにも高いので念のため再検査を手配した。尚、この田んぼは残念だが今週中にトラクターで刈り込むので新米は猪の餌になる運命。

Diary of my temporary return to Iitate-mura in early October: The result of the radiation test for the rice came in. Surprise, surprise. 2,194 becquerels/kg [of radioactive cesium] in brown rice, more than 4 times the provisional safety limit. Since it was so high I arranged for the re-testing, just in case. As to the rice crop in the rice paddy, it has to be mowed down by the end of this week. So the new crop of rice will be feeding the wild boars.

He had said in his earlier tweets that when he had to leave the village in spring, he sprinkled the seed rice on his rice paddy and let the nature take its course instead of throwing it away. To his great surprise, the rice thus sowed directly (as opposed to planting carefully cultivated seedlings) and grown without any fertilizer or pesticide and without any tilling grew better than ever. He duly noted the irony, but also now says, "If I ever grow rice again, I will do the direct sowing and do none of the maintenance work. The traditional way of growing rice by planting seedlings, using fertilizer and pesticide, tilling, weeding and other constant care is nothing but a conspiracy by the agribusiness and JA (agricultural producer co-op)."

Way to go, farmer A1271. I hope you can get to grow crops again somewhere cleaner.

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