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The Fukushima prefectural government says that radioactive cesium above the government's safety level has been detected in harvested rice in three more areas in the prefecture.
Officials said Friday that rice harvested at three farms in Watari had radioactive cesium up to 590 becquerels per kilogram. The government safety limit is 500 becquerels.
NHK reported that rice at a total of 18 farms in the area has now shown excessive radiation levels.
Watari is adjacent to Onami where contaminated rice was first detected last month. Onami is located 57 kilometers northwest of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Economy Minister Yukio Edano said Saturday he has instructed Fukushima Prefecture to ban the sales of rice from Watari (a ban is already in place for Onami, Date and other areas).
The findings will further worry nervous consumers, already fretting over the safety of domestic produce, despite its previous solid reputation.
A team of international researchers last month said elevated levels of cesium in soil in the region would “severely impair” local food production in eastern Fukushima.
The study, published in the U.S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, suggested farming in neighboring areas could also suffer because of radiation.
Shipments of a number of farm products from affected regions were halted as the crisis unfolded and even those that were not subject to official controls have found little favor with Japanese consumers wary of the potential health effects.
© Japan Today/AFP
22 Comments
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gogogo
Why can the JP government ban ALL american beef for 4 years because of a mad cow scare but can not ban all food from certain areas of Japan?
Jerome_from_Utah
OK, the rice contains 590 BQ verses the approved limit of 500 BQ. First, I don't know how the officials arrived at that limit; but we are talking about an excess 20%. What to do? The answer may be on a shelf in the local grocery store. When radioactive iodine is the problem, the solution is to take extra iodine. Following the same logic, adding extra potassium to the diet would help flush out the cesium. The product is called salt substitute, Lite Salt, Nu Salt, depending on the brand. If you find KCl as the primary ingredient, that's it. The normal use is to reduce hypertension and a little goes a long way.
Utrack
Yeah, I googled maps of the fallout in Japan and the first link I posted came up as one of the images. It puzzled me but I put it up. I hear you about the Milk.
Utrack
@ Farmboy
I know we keep hearing that some areas within Fukushima are safe to grow foodstuff but this satellite link below from March 11th shows Parts of Japan Glowing from outerspace. Not to mention the current maps that show the spread of the fallout. So I don't know if there is any safe Foodstuff in Fukushima
http://eternian.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/space-satellite-map-of-power-outages-in-japan-in-march-2011.jpg?w=600
Map from Asahi below
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201111150003
warnerbro
They will find as much contaminated food as they look for which means far less than there actually is. The governor declared everything safe and it was shipped off to schoolchildren nation wide when in fact only a minute hint of a fraction in a few areas had been checked. Since nobody doubts radiation is harmful, we need proof that the what the government says is safe actually is safe. The lack of proof that it is harmful does not make it safe.
YongYang
No worry and fret. Buy none-Tohoku.
moomoochoo
Like gogogo said, ban it all (and not just the rice).
Arturo Hernandez
We..in Greensky Mexico, work with thousands of Farmers, we want to suggest to authorities in both sides, to Bring affected Japanese Farmers, to work in Our country with Mexican farmers in alliance to produce Japanese veggies in Mexican soil, free of contamination. We can become Japan provider of clean food for next generations, covering affected areas, bringing an income for all those Japanese Farmers, walking one more step in our Countries friendship. And bringing to Japan clean food with the Japanese traditional especifications and taste.
El Gallo.
smithinjapan
The way the spokespersons make these announcements makes it seem like they are utterly baffled and surprised. What?? radiation in HARVESTED CROPS in the region is higher than normal?? However could they have known before agreeing to continue growing, then harvesting, then approving it to be shipped?? Nothing could possibly have been done differently!
Idiots, the lot of them. ALL of Fukushima should have been out of bounds from the start, and any areas surrounding with high levels (raised government standard be damned!). It's ridiculous, and incredibly sad that people will suffer for it in a number of ways.
Utrack
J Govt do not want to have to look at the fact that if you can't eat the food grown in an area then No One should be living in said area. The area ( prefecture ) of ground zero should be deserted, No one should be living there less no growing / raising radioactive foodstuff for the masses to consume. I would be shocked if any farmland in the area of fukushima was safe to grow foodstuff after looking at the fallout maps.
Vantage BizCentre
No surprise!!
nath
Again I say,does this actually come as a surprise to anyone? When will those baboons in government smarten up and just declare all produce from Fukushima unsafe?
GW
Idiots, the govt shud have banned planting rice & any veggies in ALL of Fukushima as a matter of course for this season, so it cud have concentrated on affects outside the prefecture, THEN start on Fukushima, I mean it was patently obvious tons of radioactive stuff was hitting Fukushima.
And no we have people who have been eating poisoned food for months, the rice was basically UNTESTED & released on the markets & then here & there they did a bit of testing & low & behold, the fields shud have NEVER been sown this year! What on monstrous, heinious screwup!
The govt clearly just does not care a single tiny bit about its people, all parties shud resign enmasse & NEVER get back in the game, we are still a long way from knowing the truth about how much we all are being exposed to
Miyagidad
Where is the proof they don't?
MaboDofuIsSpicy
Where is the proof that these numbers hurt us and kids?
Miyagidad
They do not tell us where in Watari these farms are, however for those of you reading this down south, Watari is basically part of Fukushima city - home to c.300,000 people. The media forgets to mention that this is semi-urban because heaven forbid city folk would be suffering. The testing is getting better, but people in the area have been eating contaminated food for 8 months. Many areas, including our about 20 kms north use wells for drinking water and/or ground water for irrigation - so many of us have been drinking it too. There has also been the cases where farmers have been burning straw/stubble - it is likely to be heavily contaminated along with the momigara (ricehulls). There has been no testing of these byproducts, only the finished, packaged and washed rice
edojin
Nothing new here, really. It's in line with what we've all been expecting ...
gogogo
This is a no brainer, what did people expect? Just ban it all, safety first please!!