Made in Fukushima: Farmers struggle to win trust

Heres my problem...

The government lied about Fukushima and the Nuclear Plant and the radiation and the disaster MANY times in the past.

It is wise and prudent to not believe a liar. Thus the citizens are suspicious.

Doesn’t take a freakin genius to know that.

'More than 205,000 food items have been tested at the Fukushima Agricultural Technology Centre since March 2011, with Japan setting a standard of no more than 100 becquerels of radioactivity per kilogram (Bq/kg).

The European Union, by comparison, sets that level at 1,250 Bq/kg and the U.S. at 1,200.'

Amazing that the EU and the US set acceptable radiation levels at 10 times higher than those in Japan.

Maybe if the Japanese government was straightforward, transparent and honest with the population from the beginning, people wouldn't have so many doubts now!

Yeah with all the faulty geigercounters around Fukushima the other day and Japan's wonderful data falsification record I don't blame anyone. Perhaps if it would go through a 3rd party "foreign" test center people would be more inclined to believe and buy their products?

In all seriousness, sad for the Fukushimans if the products are really untainted, it will require a lot more trust to be able to sell their products.

Thats certainly true...however the fact remains whatever levels are set, the EU and US have not had a nuclear disaster on the scale of Daiichi with 3 reactor meltdowns in an agriculture producing region. 

Haven't you heard about Chernobyl disaster?

In the US and Russia there were enough open air nuclear explosion tests in the 50's and 60's which makes Daiichi look like a fizzle.

Ganbare Japan

I dont think there are “rumors” being spread. Human beings are scared of radiation and nuclear hazards and are also scared of lying governments.

Had they been more honest all along, perhaps the general public wouldnt be so hesitant.

They mix the vegetables and rice to get it under the 100 becquerels, it already have been reported years ago.... do these people think customers forget? Don't trust any food from this region!

https://dunrenard.wordpress.com/2016/10/18/fukushima-rice-mixed-with-other-rices/

It's extremely regrettable that "harmful rumors" are still being spread about Fukushima produce, which is harming the farmers livelihood. Even some have committed suicide. I always look for Fukushima produce when I can, for example peach and apple. However, the foreign countries are still slow to change the image they have due to 7 year old rumor, and not many are buying the excellent produce and fish from the area. It makes me upset.

Ganbare Japan - I do eat stuff from Fukushima ken, my in-laws are from there, and they've just sent us perhaps the tastiest peaches I've ever had. I also know exactly where they are from and have seen independent radiation readings for that area.

However, you cannot deny that the implementation of laws in Japan is extremely patchy to the extent that the police will ignore road laws being broken in front of them when they are standing outside a koban! There are numerous scandals each year about companies or the government not following procedures, and it's very easy to conclude that many Japanese organisations will cheat if they think they can get away with it.

So it's very reasonable for people in Japan and overseas to be highly sceptical of the safety of food from Fukushima, however strict the guidelines are and however low the risks actually are, because undoubtedly there will be some sociopathic lowlife companies breaking the rules.

By the way, I LOVE your description of the worst nuclear disaster in 25 years as a 7 year rumour!

The lack of consumer confidence in produce safety from Fukushima comes from all the corruption in both the government and in businesses in Japan. The truth is, people are already consuming a lot of produce from Fukushima, but it's labeled as being from a neighbouring prefecture. The farmers harvest it and take it markets outside Fukushima claiming it is locally grown there. Just more corruption to weaken consumer confidence.

I've been saying it all the time there is an article that has something to do with the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, which constant, but irrational fears towards radiation only hurt others.

The idea that even after the products are able to pass the extremely strict Japanese limit on radiation on food, people hold still some kind of fear about the idea of eating that food, means they do not only not understand the science behind radiation and that they don't want to learn about it, but they don't really want to accept proven facts.

Amazing that the EU and the US set acceptable radiation levels at 10 times higher than those in Japan.

That's because the acceptable radiation levels by the EU and the US are still safe. The Japanese standard is extremely strict in this instance, which makes more unreliable that people still fear some kind of radiation from that food.

Farmers, fishermen move on Fucashima is not the place to produce food.

Why? It is a rich place with a hundred years history of agriculture. Unless you believe that there is some magical force or evil force which cannot be measured by any human means makes it impossible, hard science seems to prove that any fear of radiation is incorrect.

however the fact remains whatever levels are set, the EU and US have not had a nuclear disaster on the scale of Daiichi with 3 reactor meltdowns in an agriculture producing region. Simple as that.

Once again, unless the disaster by itself tainted with some evil forces the land, we can always measure the radiation of the food produced there, and we can see that there is no problem with it.

Magic. So were did all the radiation go?

Most of the radiation disappeared, not by magic, but because of the half life of the main radioactive particles from the disaster. Radiation from radioactive materials, by definition, are getting less and less radioactive with time. Each time a radioactive atom decays and creates radiation, it decays into a more stable particle, meaning, a non radioactive product. The more radioactive an atom is, the lower is its half life, and the fastest it disappears.

The most radioactive particles have already completely disappeared, and only remain particles with mid to low radioactivity, which have a very long half-life.

Yeah with all the faulty geigercounters around Fukushima the other day and Japan's wonderful data falsification record I don't blame anyone. Perhaps if it would go through a 3rd party "foreign" test center people would be more inclined to believe and buy their products?

Geiger counters are not a magic instrument that just some people have access to. There are cheap and easy to use Geiger counter you yourself can buy. If you don't believe those people, test it yourself.

But food from Fukushima and try to measure the radiation with you own Geiger counter.

Maybe if the Japanese government was straightforward, transparent and honest with the population from the beginning, people wouldn't have so many doubts now!

From what I've seen, it is more a case of "I don't understand what this means, so they are probably hiding something".

For example, I remember the time when the government put an alert on drinking water, saying that even thou it was OK to drink, that it should be avoided as drinking water for babies, unless there is absolutely no other water source available.

The warning was actually extremely reasonable, and in fact was extremely cautious, because even at those levels, even if you give your baby nothing but that tap water to drink, there is a 99.9% nothing bad will happen, but people said that the government was "hiding the truth", and that if babies could not drink it, why adults can? and things like that.

The reasons become clear if you understand the science behind it, but people just went with the easy choice of never trusting what the authorities say because they are unable to understand the reasons.

They mix the vegetables and rice to get it under the 100 becquerels, it already have been reported years ago.... do these people think customers forget?

Even if that was true (which I don't), it changes nothing. It's not like "the rice has more than 100 becquerels by itself", because IT IS IMPOSIBLE. You cannot "water down" radiation, that's not how radiation works.

A regular smoker DOES NOT have to worry about radiation from Fukushima, trust me. That amount of radiation won't significantly decrease your survival chances...

Not to mention that the Tobacco this person is smoking has way more radiation than food from Fukushima.

It might be safer to buy Fukishima products actually as they are at least checked...

The idea that only products from Fukushima get tested from radiation is false. Products from ALL OVER THE COUNTRY get the same tests.

I have not however heard about any agricultural produce from within a 100km radius of Chernobyl being pushed onto either domestic back then USSR or international market, have you?

From the WHO about farming and safety in Chernobyl:

Remediation made “clean food” production possible in many areas but led to higher costs in the form of fertilizers, additives and special cultivation processes. Even where farming is safe, the stigma associated with Chernobyl caused marketing problems and led to falling revenues, declining production and the closure of some facilities. Combined with disruptions due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, recession, and new market mechanisms, the region’s economy suffered, resulting in lower living standards, unemployment and increased poverty. All agricultural areas, whether affected by radiation or not, proved vulnerable.[...]

Currently and for the long term, radiocaesium, present in milk, meat and some plant foods, remains the most significant concern for internal human exposure, but, with the exception of a few areas, concentrations fall within safe levels.

Most of the radiation disappeared, not by magic, but because of the half life of the main radioactive particles from the disaster. Radiation from radioactive materials, by definition, are getting less and less radioactive with time. Each time a radioactive atom decays and creates radiation, it decays into a more stable particle, meaning, a non radioactive product. The more radioactive an atom is, the lower is its half life, and the fastest it disappears.

You seem to have a very positive view of radiation. You almost present radiation as something that you can bathe in and it won’t be harmful to you.

Luis is guilty of major glossing and this considerably weakens his arguments. "Radiation", for instance, is not a single item, but a catagory of a range of elements, each with a specific half-life. Strontium-90, for instance, is 28.9 years. Caesium-137 has a half-life of about 30.17 years. Uranium-235 has a half-life of 703.8 million years.

Chernobyl is safe?

Then there is the issue of your safety at Chernobyl – where the waters are murkier. Local tour companies insist that, after 30 years, the site is safe to visit. By contrast, Ukrainian officials have suggested that Pripyat will not be inhabitable for another 20,000 years. The crews which maintain the concrete sarcophagus that keeps the exploded reactor in check work strictly monitored five-hour days over the course of a month, then take 15 days off.

Luis are you sure everyone else is wrong?

Medical examination about radiation disease has been shrunk by authorities in Japan year by year.

Magic. So were did all the radiation go?

I suspect the greatest challenge for Fukushima products lies in convincing domestic consumers that the product is safe.

Traditionally Domestic consumption of such products far exceeds exports.

When you've got kids from Fukishima who have moved to other cities being bullied, ostracized and called poisonous and the like, or temples refusal of memorial tablets made of wood from Fukushima, then you've got a ready-made situation for even normally tolerant and sensible folks to query.

Yes it all stinks of ignorance, hypocrisy and bigotry, but that's what you get when you cross Govt Inc with Nuclear Inc - a stain that's hard to remove. That and people's own selfishness.

Unfortunately, it's 'all in the name', as they say.

Google 'Fukushima' and see what you get -

Google 'Chernobyl' and you still get the same images, and it's been almost 40 years since that disaster so you can see that this problem will not go away.

If i were the farmers, i would request that the government redraw the map, extending the borders of ibaraki, tochigi and miyagi -

Luis David Yanez

Since you believe that the government never once lied in any form about the Nuclear Meltdown and are convinced of the “facts” that there is no radiation...hey it must be a pretty clear and clean area up there right?

We should go and walk around and grow stuff and eat it and take our children there to live and......

oh wait, I can’t...its all barricaded up and theres hazard signs and the area won’t be decomissioned as a nuclear meltdown poisoned zone for 100 years....

Do you see the problem here?

luis david - thanks for your response. You Said -

** "............**but that's what you get when you cross Govt Inc with Nuclear Inc - a stain that's hard to remove. That and people's own selfishness.

When you make an argument like this, it really sound like you are trying to justify irrationality and awful behavior.

The idea that "Nuclear Inc" is bad and evil is almost implied in your response, which sucks horribly, because this kind of irrational hate and fear of nuclear power is what kind of fuels the fearful and hateful responses to the people of Fukushima*......................"

No - I'm not trying to justify irrationality & awful behaviour. I'm in fact condemning the irrational actions & behaviour of the Govt, their lackeys and that of the truly inept Nuclear industry in Japan.

My use of ".............Inc" is common usage when one wants to disparage an organization. It's exactly how I meant it. If I didn't want to quip disparagingly, I would have used terms like the National Government or the Nuclear Industry which are neutral, not loaded terms

But in this instance I wanted to condemn. Why? Because the actions of Govt Inc over the past years concerning the disaster have come up short in many ways. A tiny example is when you have a prime minister bleating that it's all under control so come and enjoy the $billions+ olympics, doesn't answer any of the multitude of unanswered questions posed re the plight of people. Similarly, Nuclear Inc in Japan has a woeful track record esp re safety. The incidents have been too numerous to mention here, but again a simple example, Tokai Mura. That fiasco indelibly stained the industry, probably knocking decades of "good" in one foul swoop. It's easy to find many examples of incompetence, vested interests, lying, collusion..........etc, etc.... by both parties mentioned, so I don't even want to begin to talk about what is already mainstream common knowledge.

And I for one, do not believe as you stated, that the gross negligence displayed by both Govt & Nuke Inc is fuelling hatred and fear of Fukushima citizens. That certainly sounds misguided to me - "If only we supported the Incs then everyone would be positive towards Fukushima and it's citizens".

Immeasureable Tragedy struck and the failings of the govt / nuclear industry pre & post, impacted tremendously and they must accept a large dose of blame. Educating the population by open divulgence and discussion and dedicated committment to offer BIG help to Fukushima citizens would enhance their future prospects considerably.

Then there is the issue of your safety at Chernobyl – where the waters are murkier. Local tour companies insist that, after 30 years, the site is safe to visit. By contrast, Ukrainian officials have suggested that Pripyat will not be inhabitable for another 20,000 years. The crews which maintain the concrete sarcophagus that keeps the exploded reactor in check work strictly monitored five-hour days over the course of a month, then take 15 days off.

> Luis are you sure everyone else is wrong?

Science is not about what most people say, or what the government says, but what is the reality of the matter.

For example, I said "Chernobyl", the main city, not "Pripyat", the city created basically just to accommodate workers of the power plant.

There are actually people living in Chernobyl today.

Pripyat is a different story, but saying that the place won't be inhabitable for 20,000 years is ridiculous. Basically that is equivalent to the point when basically every single radioisotope from the disaster will disappear, but that is not at all equivalent to what should make a place inhabitable.

However that does not change the fact that the explosion that blew up the building resulted in radioactive particles being released in to the open and the resulting contamination of Fukushima and neighboring prefectures. Comparing it to a gas plant explosion is way off, you know that.

Actually no, I don't know that. In gas plant explosions a lot of people actually die.

There have been gas plant explosions that have basically erased a whole village of the face of the planet, not to mention that even in minor gas plant explosions, causalities are common.

In this case... no one died from this accident. And that is the hard truth. No one died, and there has not been any proven related deaths from the radiation released by the plant.

Immeasureable Tragedy struck and the failings of the govt / nuclear industry pre & post, impacted tremendously and they must accept a large dose of blame. Educating the population by open divulgence and discussion and dedicated committment to offer BIG help to Fukushima citizens would enhance their future prospects considerably.

I'm not saying there is no blame in what the government or Tepco did, and I'm not trying to justify any kind of negligence, but I would say that these kind of actions are rampant on almost every other industry, but no one cares in those instances.

In the instance of the nuclear industry, the anti-nuclear lobby has successfully fueled this almost conspiracy theory about the government "hiding the truth" about the nuclear disaster, and that the nuclear disaster is somehow "way worse" than what the government wants to admit, which is complete non-sense, and that's what I'm saying that even if that is not your intention, sadly because of this topic, it gets used in that way very easily, so we most be very careful with our words in this topic so that they do not get taken out of context.

Well obviously most people don’t agree with you Luis.

Also a lot of “facts” and “science” through history has turned out to be lies and deliberate misleading of the public by scientists and the government using falsified “data” to support “facts” that later killed many thousands of people. THIS is actual history!

You are one of the few who believes what the government says and believes the data that they present. I have good reason to not believe everything the LDP says.

Well obviously most people don’t agree with you Luis.

Most people also do not understand nor they care to understand particle physics, so I'm not surprised.

The anti-nuclear lobby provides an easy to digest answer for the public ignorance in these subjects, and as such it is obviously popular.

I've said it before, but the main flaw of Nuclear power is the fact that it is easy to fear but difficult to actually understand.

Also a lot of “facts” and “science” through history has turned out to be lies and deliberate misleading of the public by scientists and the government using falsified “data” to support “facts” that later killed many thousands of people. THIS is actual history!

There is a slim but considerable difference between been an skeptic to been a conspiracy theorist.

People from the Flat Earth society use exactly that same logic to justify their ideas.

You are one of the few who believes what the government says and believes the data that they present. I have good reason to not believe everything the LDP says.

As I've said, it's not a blind faith of what the government says. Anyone can measure radiation by themselves, and anyone who understands how radiation works can reach the conclusion that in this instance the government isn't lying.

Why are you moving the discussion goalposts Luis? The issue discussed was contamination as a result of the explosion , not casualties.

I wasn't even aware that "contamination" was the goalpost. I thought we were talking about people's fear of nuclear power and radiation, and I was just showing how nuclear power isn't as dangerous as, for example, a gas plant even in the case of a catastrophic accident.

Also, not sure if you are aware, but when a gas plant explodes it also contaminates its environment, and many of the gases released just go to contribute their part to climate change... so yeah.

You seem to have a very positive view of radiation. You almost present radiation as something that you can bathe in and it won’t be harmful to you.

I dislike this false dichotomy in which if I don't share your irrational fear of radiation, it must mean that I'm in love with radiation or something along those lines.

My view on radiation is nothing more than what I learned while studying particle physics.

"Radiation", for instance, is not a single item, but a catagory of a range of elements, each with a specific half-life. Strontium-90, for instance, is 28.9 years. Caesium-137 has a half-life of about 30.17 years. Uranium-235 has a half-life of 703.8 million years.

Radiation actually is not a category of elements, those would be "Radioactive elements". Radiation simply refers to the transmission of energy from waves or particles.

In this case, the type of Radiation released by Radioactive elements is particle radiation, which divides in alpha radiation (Helium-4 at high speed), beta radiation (electrons at high speed), Neutron radiation, and electromagnetic radiation in the form of gamma radiation (photons at high speed).

Radiation can be measured by the rate of decay, which is the rate radiation is released. The lower is the half-life, the higher is the radiation, and the higher is the half-life, the lower is the radiation.

Let me put it this way, Uranium-235 is a magnitudes of time less radioactive than one of the most common radioisotopes that were released by this accident, Iodine-131, which has a half-life of 8 days.

This makes it very radioactive, but also means that it disappears very quickly. Another of these highly radioactive isotopes is Tellurium-129m, with a half-life of 6 days.

Strontium-90 and Caesium-137 are way less radioactive than these 2 radioisotopes, and Uranium-235 is WAY less radioactive, even if that seems counter intuitive because it is used by reactors, but in fact in makes sense, because since it is a highly stable radioisotope, it is easier to use in reactors.

We should go and walk around and grow stuff and eat it and take our children there to live and......

oh wait, I can’t...its all barricaded up and theres hazard signs and the area won’t be decomissioned as a nuclear meltdown poisoned zone for 100 years....

Do you see the problem here?

First, where are you referring to?

If you are referring to the core of the reactor, then maybe, but if you are referring to the towns near the reactor... not really.

No one in power has ever said that those places will be non accessible for "100 years", that's just crazy.

For the love of the world, even Chernobyl is accessible nowadays.

But what experts on this field have said about these zones is, the have criticized the Japanese Government for their over reaction to the radiation, and their so called "No-go zones", since many of the places with these forced evacuation statuses have relatively safe levels of radiation equivalent to levels of radiation seen in nature in other places of the world.

Not to mention, that people are so irrationally afraid of radiation, that even people far away from those zones did "voluntary evacuations" with nothing to back them up, but irrational fear.

Test it as much as you want, I don't want too eat it. Stupid I know but any product from Fucashima is tainted. And I smoke and drink so a little bit more shouldn't matter, but it does. Farmers, fishermen move on Fucashima is not the place to produce food.

Problem is that if Fukushima-ken have low levels for product the neighboring Tochigi, Yamagata and Gunma (specific places) might not and the guard is lower for their produce.

It might be safer to buy Fukishima products actually as they are at least checked...

@Triring

Chernobyl: EU or US?

You tell us.

And I smoke and drink so a little bit more shouldn't matter, but it does.

Yeah, so why do you think your opinion matters then? Just because you have a totally irrelevant bias towards Fukushima doesn't give you the right to bash their products... A regular smoker DOES NOT have to worry about radiation from Fukushima, trust me. That amount of radiation won't significantly decrease your survival chances...

The government lied about Fukushima and the Nuclear Plant and the radiation and the disaster MANY times in the past.

I hear this argument A LOT, and I have yet to found one specific instance in which the government actually lied about Fukushima or the Nuclear Plant.

As I said before, most of what I've seen is people assuming that the "government must be lying" because of some statement about radiation they do not understand.

The other instance in which I've seen people saying that the government lied about Fukushima is when basically there is a correction on something. Mostly this happened early when people weren't even able to approach the reactors because of the tsunami, and for the most part they had to do estimations about things, which after a while turned out not to be true.

Saying that they didn't believe there was any meltdown, but then it turned out there actually was is not lying about it, since either statement was just based on speculation.

Human beings are scared of radiation and nuclear hazards and are also scared of lying governments.

As I've been saying all this time, it is true that people are scared of radiation, but as I've pointed out, for the most part those worries only exist because they do not understand how actually radiation works, and because of this they tend to agree more with anti-nuclear activist which spread actual lies and misinformation about radiation and nuclear hazards than the government.

Fear is the problem here.

Cool...good to know the images of Dai ichi reactor exploding i saw on TV back im March 2011 were just rumors.

Those weren't "nuclear explosions", they were explosions from hydrogen that started to accumulate in the building as a product of an uncontrolled reaction in the reactor.

This is the kind of fear tactic used by the anti-nuclear lobby, trying to insinuate that "if there is an explosion in a nuclear plant, it means everything is messed up, and is just like a nuclear bomb", which it isn't.

Obviously having an explosion on a power station isn't a good thing, but I don't see people making an scandal when a gas plant explodes.

In fact, its almost like people see it as "obvious" for a gas plant to explode, and do not read too much into it.

but that's what you get when you cross Govt Inc with Nuclear Inc - a stain that's hard to remove. That and people's own selfishness.

When you make an argument like this, it really sound like you are trying to justify irrationality and awful behavior.

The idea that "Nuclear Inc" is bad and evil is almost implied in your response, which sucks horribly, because this kind of irrational hate and fear of nuclear power is what kind of fuels the fearful and hateful responses to the people of Fukushima.

It's extremely regrettable that "harmful rumors" are still being spread about Fukushima produce, which is harming the farmers livelihood. Even some have committed suicide. I always look for Fukushima produce when I can, for example peach and apple. However, the foreign countries are still slow to change the image they have due to 7 year old rumor, and not many are buying the excellent produce and fish from the area. It makes me upset.