Wild Boar in Miyagi Prefecture Was Found With 2,200 Becquerels/Kg of Radioactive Cesium

It adds to the beef conundrum from yesterday's post that the cow that wasn't fed contaminated rice hay. This wild boar was most likely eating the farm crops, wild plant roots and fruits, and occasional maggots and insects.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (8/19/2011):

宮城県は１９日、県猟友会の会員が捕獲したイノシシの肉から、暫定規制値（１キロ・グラムあたり５００ベクレル）を超す１キロ・グラムあたり２２００ベクレルの放射性セシウムが検出されたと発表した。

Miyagi Prefecture announced on August 19 that 2,200 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was found in the meat of a wild boar caught by a member of the hunters' association in the prefecture. The provisional safety limit [for cesium in food] is 500 becquerels/kg.

　イノシシ肉は市場に流通していないが、県は野生動物の食用摂取を控えるように呼びかけている。発表によると、イノシシは７日に同県南部の角田市で捕獲され、同会が１６日に検査機関に検査を依頼した。イノシシは通常、土中の虫や畑の作物を餌にしている。

Wild boar meat is not sold in the market, but the Miyagi prefectural government is asking people to refrain from consuming the game meat. According to the announcement by the prefectural government, the wild boar in question was caught in Kakuda City in southern Miyagi on August 7, and the hunters' association asked a testing laboratory to do the analysis [for radioactive materials] on August 16. Wild boars normally eat worms in the soil and the field crops.

But don't worry about minor details like wild boars being radioactive (never mind that they don't eat rice hay). Miyagi has a big plan for the future, once the governor's "recovery and reconstruction" plan is approved in the prefectural assembly. One of the central ideas of Governor Murai is to build a big museum to commemorate the earthquake/tsunami of March 11, and build a memorial park around the museum. His other ideas include high-rise towers and high-rise residential buildings to separate out the living space and work space (farmers and fishermen would "commute" to their work which would be organized like corporation).

It's a great recovery plan for the area's general contractors who usually have to team up with the national general contractors to share the project. Great for big agribusiness too, if they don't mind radiation in the soil, as this wild boar clearly demonstrates exists in abundance.

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