#Radioactive Japan: Fukushima Prefecture Wants to Sell Wild Mushrooms and Wild Edible Plants

While fishermen in Fukushima Prefecture have, for the most part, restrained themselves from pushing hard on resuming the commercial fishing after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, farmers are a totally different story.

They have never stopped growing vegetables, rice, fruits, mushrooms, cattle for meat, etc., and have insisted that they sell to the rest of Japan as long as the national government says they are under the safety limit (100 Bq/kg radioactive cesium). Right after the start of the nuclear accident and as radioactive fallout was descending on their land, farmers in Fukushima started tilling the land to plant.

"They have to make a living", supporters say. (Don't fishermen, too?)

But this news goes too far as far as I am concerned. Fukushima Prefecture wants to allow farmers to sell wild mushrooms and wild edible plants, which have been known to concentrate radioactive cesium. There is no specific reason given in the article why they are considering lifting the shipment restriction now, and there is no mention of the fact that these food items tend to contain high levels of radioactive cesium.

From Fukushima Minpo via Yahoo Japan (9/12/2013):

キノコ・山菜類の出荷制限解除に向けて説明会　郡山

Briefing on lifting the shipment restriction

福島県は１１日、東京電力福島第一原発事故によるキノコ・山菜類の出荷制限の解除に向けた説明会を郡山市の県林業研究センターで開いた。市町村に対し、個人から持ち寄られた食品の放射性物質検査のデータ提供を求めた。

Fukushima prefectural government held a briefing at the Prefectural Forestry Research Center in Koriyama City toward lifting the shipment restriction on mushrooms and edible wild plants that was put in place because of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. The prefectural government asked the municipalities to submit data of nuclide analysis of food items submitted by citizens.

　出荷制限の解除には、市町村の単位で、３カ所以上の検査結果が基準値を下回ることが条件。制限する政府は、露地栽培や野生のキノコ・山菜類については管理の難しさなどから、さらに検体数を増やすよう県に求めている。このため、県は検体数を増やし、モニタリングの検査精度を高めたい考えだ。

To lift the shipment restriction in a municipality, samples from three or more locations within a municipality must test below the safety standard. The national government who sets the standard is requesting Fukushima Prefecture to increase the number of samples as it is difficult to manage mushrooms cultivated outdoors, wild mushrooms and wild edible plants. The prefectural government plans to increase the number of samples and enhance the accuracy of monitoring.

　説明会には市町村の担当者ら約百人が出席した。

The briefing was attended by about 100 managers from the municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture.

The reason why the prefectural government is asking for data on a municipal level is that there is hardly any official monitoring data of wild mushrooms and wild edible plants done by the prefecture.

Come to think about it, a "shipping restriction" has not been a "shipping ban" anyway, as the prefectural government lacks will and personnel to enforce the "restriction". All the government (prefectural and municipal) officials do is to tell farmers not to sell them. Besides, the shipment restriction only means farmers are not supposed to sell either outside the municipalities they live in or outside Fukushima Prefecture.

Full of loopholes big enough to drive a farm truck through.

And the farmers cry "baseless rumors" because they cannot get the price they used to get before the accident.

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