Date City in #Fukushima to Allow Rice Growing Everywhere, Even Where 500 Bq/kg Safety Limit Was Exceeded Last Year

The mayor of the city says "It's for the research purpose, and won't be sold". Sure.

If Fukushima City and Nihonmatsu City follow suit, the only municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture where rice won't be grown this year are the same as last year, inside the no-entry zone and in the planned evacuation zone.

Everywhere else, whether it produced rice with 500 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium or not, farmers will grow rice.

Officials in Nihonmatsu City have already said as long as it is the national government's responsibility to test the harvested rice, they don't see any problem growing rice.

From Jiji Tsushin (3/2/2012):

福島県伊達市の仁志田昇司市長は２日の定例記者会見で、２０１２年産米について国の暫定規制値（１キロ当たり５００ベクレル）を超える放射性セシウムが検出された地域でも試験的に作付けを行う方針を明らかにした。セシウムが検出された原因や除染の効果を調査するのが狙い。同市長は「出荷をしないという前提で試験する。（収穫後は）きちんと管理する」と語った。今後、この方針をめぐり国などと協議する。

Shoji Nishida, Mayor of Date City in Fukushima Prefecture, held the regular press conference on March 2 and announced the policy to allow farmers to plant rice this year even in the areas where radioactive cesium exceeding the national provisional safety limit (500 becquerels/kg) was found in rice last year. The purpose is to identify the reasons for cesium detection in rice, and to study the effect of decontamination. The mayor said, "It is an experiment, and the rice won't be sold. After the harvest, it will be properly managed." The mayor will discuss the policy with the national and prefectural governments.

This is the same city that has sent more conscientious farmers who refrained from growing rice last year a notice that their land will be considered abandoned unless they farm and grow crops this year.

In the highly contaminated district of Date City, one worker hired by the JAEA died at the decontamination site.

Why do they continue to grow rice in the most contaminated prefecture in all of Japan? you ask? As I posted before, it is to encourage farmers to continue to farm, ostensibly. And to keep rice paddies in good condition, ostensibly. And to increase the food self-sufficiency, ostensibly. None of them make any sense to me, but here's a tweet from one of the supporters of rice growing Fukushima farmers sent to Professor Yukio Hayakawa:

米作りは生態系維持や土質の維持、そして農民の生き甲斐などの観点からは毎年欠かさず作るほうがよいと言えます。経済的価値からだけの判断は一面的過ぎませんか？

In order to maintain the ecosystem and the quality of the soil, and to give farmers something to live for, it is better to grow rice every year without fail. Judging only by the economic merit is too one-sided, don't you think?

Professor Hayakawa's answer:

あなたはその考えのもとに自分の子どもの健康を差し出せますか？

Can you sacrifice the health of your own child based on your thinking?

People like this person who wrote to Hayakawa are trapped in their PC. It probably doesn't even occur to them, as it didn't for this person, "quality of soil" is damaged at least for several decades because of radioactive cesium, strontium, silver and other radionuclides that fell on the farmland in Fukushima.

I can tell you the country was not like this before. Yes, the idea of "tatemae" (facade) and "honnne" (real) was always there, but at least people knew that it was "tatemae" when they heard it.

Now, more and more Japanese truly believe in their own "tatemae" and lies.

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