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After the earthquake, there's been a prevalent feeling among people that you can make do with replacements... It doesn't have to be beef curry, it could be pork, or chicken, or the beef could come fro

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Shigenobu Ikedo, a food safety expert at Miyagi University's School of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, on the fear that rice may be contaminated due to the Fukushima nuclear crisis. (Reuters)

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Also one can replace the beer with German beer.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Ok.... let's be realistic. If people have nothing to eat, they will learn to be flexible and stop being so picky.

The world is filled with so many wonderful varieties of rice, that a good cook can do a week's worth of rice based dishes and not touch the same type of rice. Each with a unique quality and flavor.

Now is Japanese rice special. Sure. Is it univerally better than any other rice. NO! Can you eat and live upon other forms of rice? YES!

So Japanese eating people, unite brothers and sisters and join the rest of us on an exploration of the wonders of global rice!!! Or do without rice until the radiation issue is entirely over.

It is up to you. I and my friends will be eating well and enjoying the rice you don't buy... :)

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Well, let's wait until the rice gets contaminated. Then we can see if Japanese think of a substitute or not..

0 ( +0 / -0 )

oh, japanese rice - i remember when we used to buy american grown japonica in the states - EVERY BIT as good as the stuff they grow here but not the taste (read price) of protectionism.

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I did not know Pigs and Chickens were Immune to radiation fallout. NOT... Those animals were contaminated as well as cows. Rice harvested last year and stored indoors could have received contamination through radiation falloutespecially in areas containing Hotspots. Shiitake Mushrooms grown indoors were contaminated with high levels of radiation so why not anything else stored or grown.

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Well, obviously, rice could come from abroad too. It's just that there is a massive delusion, encouraged by the government on behalf of the farmers, that Japanese rice is far superior and safer than imported rice. Back in the 1990s, after some very low rice harvests, a lot of rice was imported. It was fine.

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Rice harvested last year and stored indoors could have received contamination through radiation falloutespecially in areas containing Hotspots

How that???

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Bobolinkski says: "Back in the 1990s, after some very low rice harvests, a lot of rice was imported. It was fine."

Some shops would only sell Japanese rice if an equal quantity of foreign, e.g. Thai rice was bought. Housewives would buy 1 kg of Thai rice so that they could get the accompanying 1kg of Japanese rice. They then promptly dropped the Thai rice in a rubbish bin.

As Bobolinski says the imported rice was fine. Unfortunately, many Japanese are brainwashed into believing otherwise. Unfortunately, the government will probably continue to promote this fallacy. And unfortunately for us, they will try to prevent us from having any choice when we purchase rice.

The government surely knows by now whether this years crop will be safe or not. It is not necessary to wait for the harvest to test the rice.

I suspect the plan is to mix rice with a high level of radiation with rice with a lower level, maybe even old rice. I believe this is not the right way to handle the problem. Radioactive rice should be dumped.

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Yea, I concur with other posters. If the Japanese weren't brainwashed into thinking foreign food was poison, none of this would be a problem. Imported rice would be easier, cheaper, and this wouldn't even be an issue. But as gaijintraveler suggests, they'll likely try some kind of hairbrained idea like mixing rice or something, or Japanese will be standing in long, long lines to buy pure, un-radioactive, JAPANESE rice.

All I know is that I'm glad I don't eat rice.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

gonemad

Rice harvested last year and stored indoors could have received contamination through radiation fallout especially in areas containing Hotspots

How that???

If Last years rice is Stored in a warehouse where there is Radiation Fallout expect there to be contamination on some level. No warehouse is Hermetically Sealed and Opening Those Big Garage like Doors are letting in radiation. Even the roof of the warehouse will be contaminated.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Utrack, the only form in which radiation can get into the stored rice is by minuscule amounts of dust which contains radioactive fallout and which gets into the warehouse. From these minuscule amounts an ever smaller part gets into the rice sacks and when you use the rice, you wash it several times before cooking. There is absolutely no worry about rice from last year's harvest, where ever it comes from. The problem will start in September when the first new rice gets harvested.

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