Wednesday, October 12, 2011

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.

19 comments:

Stock said...

The truth is starting to come out in main stream media.
The radiation has spread much wider than gov admitted before.

Strontium is one of the worst, it is a bone seeker, it goes into the bone and become part of the bone, never leaving, blasting away…end result is bone cancer or leukemia. This is in Yokohama

However, even this report, is only 195 Bq/kg, which is not that huge, but if it was in food it would be way over the so called limit. IN reality only ZERO strontium is good for you.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-12/radioactive-material-found-250km-from-fukushima/3554608

Keeping high amounts of calcium in the blood (eating lots of Tums daily) can help prevent strontium from getting into the bone. Strontium acts like calcium.

Johntaro said...

Adult consumers have a choice and a lot of them are choosing not to buy agricultural products coming from Fukushima and other parts of Japan's Tohoku region. School kids don't have that luxury and I'm afraid much of this "radioactive rice" will end up in public school lunches far and wide (as other radioactive contaminated foods already have). There has got to be a better way to ensure public health while maintaining the financial health of farming communities.

Anonymous said...

What bugs me most is the tireless insistence by the authorities - not just in Japan, but all over the world - on a "safety level" compared to a "natural background radiation". I may be wrong and feel like an alien that landed on Earth yesterday, but I don't think that is (or was, at least) "natural" to find Ce-137, I-132 and St-90 in our environment, much less in our food.

93 grams of Ce-137 killed four, contaminated hundreds (maybe thousands) and the decontamination effort resulted in more than 11000 tons of radioactive waste in Brazil, in the 80's. This stuff is deadly.

By the way, I'm puzzled by the lack of uranium in any of these lab reports, since march. U-238 decays fast into neptunium 238 and then plutonium 238, is it? But what about U-235?

Anonymous said...

"93 grams of Ce-137 killed four, contaminated hundreds (maybe thousands)"

93 grams of pure Cesium-137 is a lot, though. Around 299 terabecquerels, or 299,000,000,000,000 Bq.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=cesium+137

Anonymous said...

"Steveo said... The truth is starting to come out in main stream media."

Where !?

--------------------------

One cleanup method against Strontium Sr-90 depopulation agent - distributed globally myriad times - is mineral SALT. Thus you must already MSM-'know' that SALT is sooo dangerous.

MSM offers no Cesium 'deterrent' as it doesnt even exist ... psst: its zeolite = common clay (manufactured industrially for the CCCP elite before chernobyl xplosion). (Chernobyl; Yablokov al. Table 14.2) www.strahlentelex.de/Yablokov%20Chernobyl%20book.pdf

Anonymous said...

Don't eat brown rice.

Anonymous said...

"Nihonmatsu City, 470 becquerels/kg (page 9 of the linked PDF file)."

There is thins one line with 250, none 470?:
二本松市(旧小浜町) 23.10.06 米(本調査) ND 220 250

Now whatabout the date? Do they measure the future also? See page 9
中島村23.10.12 豚肉ND ND ND

Anonymous said...

Anonymous @ 9:36 PM

I notice that 'authorities' dismiss radiation levels from prior nuclear testing as 'natural background'. So, I guess after awhile, they'll refer to Fukushima levels and those added throughout Japan by Fukushima, as 'natural' the next time a reactor melts down.

Anonymous said...

... always comparing harmless fuku to dangerous bananas. Tells where they came down in the morning.

Anonymous said...

It also puzzles me the comparison with natural background (or bananas) radiations. From the few I understood about cancer, in many cases (if not all?) it is due to nano-particles (created by combustion-then incinerators, weapons or nuclear fusion of course) getting into the body (organs or blood or skin...) and making it to react to the "stranger" by isolating it with over production of cells...the then cancer cells. It is logical that radioactivity coming out of a nuclear fusion and the nano-particles released is a major cause of concern. Correct me if I am wrong. I wonder if natural radiation implies nano-particles that can enter the body and fix themselves into it.

Anonymous said...

This shows the short-sightness of the government / farmers. If the crop is close to 500 bq/kg. then I would not want to be working in that field.

The government should just compensate and tell the farmers not to work on the contaminated field.

DD said...

Thanks Anony for "next time a reactor melts down."
[iron on]
" ... but there won't BE a next TIME ... we've beefed up the safety standards* "
[iron off]

* maximum safety levels

-- next time, we won't be around to check if the instruments are defective --

Anonymous said...

Some COOPs are your last hope for sourcing zero-contamination food in Japan. See this blog: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/search/label/food%20co-op

Anonymous said...

I can't find the 470 Bq/kg value on page 9 of http://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/houdou/2r9852000001rcjv-att/2r9852000001rco5.pdf

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous 11:40 PM: 23.10.12 means 12 October of 23rd year of Heisei era (which is 2011 in the Christian calendar)

Robert said...

Given these radiation in food numbers, let's try to project the future numbers. How much radiation is being relesed into the environment at Fukushima every day now? How does this compare to previous releases after the catastrophy? What percentage of cooling water is being recycled now by the Frech Areva process? With long half life radionucleotides, significant continuing releases,and continuing spread,not to speak about the nuclear cores finding their way into ground water, means only increasing radiation in food in the future. With all of Japan's brain and computing power some organization should be able to provide resonable predictions. This to enlighten the part of the public that wants to be informed, not kept in the dark. So today its 500 what about tomorrow when it reches 1000 or 2000. What to do then, declare it safe, hear no evil speak no evil. There has to be a better way to manage this.

Anonymous said...

May be it will be mixed with good rice to lower overall readings as they did with burn material ? … higher amounts were mixed with lower amounts to equal out to the burn limit per kilo ? The governments buying radioactive rice ?

Will they mix with good rice to lower over all readings ?
What do you think ?

xdrfox

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Much of Fukushima rice will end up in restaurants and school lunches. This year in particular, because the price is much lower. Besides, if the rice from different locations are blended, then the seller doesn't need to disclose the origins. The label will be "made in Japan", and no one will know exactly where in Japan.

Anonymous said...

"Robert said... ... So today its 500 what about tomorrow when it reches 1000 or 2000. What to do then, declare it safe, hear no evil speak no evil. There has to be a better way to manage this."

.

Best Mgmt on the Planet - from the very beginning. You just missed its widely published depopulation goals... project on Target.

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