A pair of Chicago indie filmmakers captures farmers in the aftermath of Japan’s nuclear disaster.

By Jake Malooley

One steamy day last July, Junko Kajino and Ed M. Koziarski found themselves in Fukushima, Japan, hiding beneath a tarp in the back of a pickup truck full of cow feed. The farmer behind the wheel smuggled the filmmakers into a government-mandated 20-kilometer evacuation zone that became highly contaminated with radioactive cesium after a massive earthquake 43 miles off the city’s coast in March. The quake triggered tsunami waves that smashed into the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, causing meltdowns of three reactors.

Nearly all of the farmers who owned land in the area were forced to abandon their crops: rice, apples, chestnuts, cucumbers, grapes, tomatoes and the city’s famously juicy peaches. Livestock was either put down or left to starve. But this particular farmer had secured a permit to feed his cattle in the danger zone, keeping the animals alive for future scientific study.

“We weren’t thinking about the dangers,” Kajino, 37, says. “We were thinking, This is our only chance to get these wonderful images of this farmer risking his life to protect his animals.”

Continue reading at “Uncanny Terrain” fund-raiser

Two Fukushima Prefecture men in their 70s suffered a relatively high level of internal radiation exposure by consuming homegrown vegetables contaminated with radioactive cesium, a survey by the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Medical Science has found.

The level of radioactivity in one of the men was close to 20,000 becquerels. Researchers said this would result in an annual radiation dose of about 0.85 millisieverts — under the government’s yearly limit for radiation exposure from food of 1 millisievert per year.

[...]
Every day, the couple in Kawamata had eaten homegrown shiitake mushrooms grown on wood from the Fukushima Prefecture town of Namie, as well as bamboo shoots from near their homes, and dried persimmon. Radioactivity of over 140,000 becquerels was found in the mushrooms. The couple from Nihonmatsu reportedly consumed vegetables given to them by the other couple.

Continue reading at 2 Fukushima men suffer internal radiation exposure from homegrown vegetables

Analysis of WHO report on Fukushima catastrophe Dr. med. Alex Rosen*
University Childrens Clinic Düsseldorf August 3rd, 2012

On May 23rd, 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) published what it called a “Preliminary dose estimation from the nuclear accident after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami”. The report aims to provide timely and authoritative information on the anticipated scale of doses in members of the public for the first year after the accident” in order to “estimate at global level the potential health consequences of human exposure to radiation during the first year after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident.” The media response to the WHO publication echoed the reassuring messages of the report itself:
•    “WHO: Post-Fukushima radiation levels in Japan ‘low’” (BBC, May 24th, 2012)

•    “WHO: Radiation exposure near Fukushima plant within safe limits (Asahi Shimbun, May 23rd, 2012)

•    “Radiation danger through Fukushima nuclear disaster less than expected” (Spiegel, May 24th,2012)

•    “Most Fukushima radiation doses within norms – WHO” (Reuters, May 23rd, 2012)

•    “Fukushima Radiation mostly within accepted levels” (AFP, May 23rd, 2012)

Whether or not these optimistic headlines portray the true situation in Fukushima remains to be seen. This paper analyzes the WHO report by attempting to answer three simple questions:

•    What does the report say? Which information is actually contained in the report, what are its main conclusions and how do the findings compare to the numbers published by other sources?

•    What does the report not say? Which important information was left out of the report, which obvious conclusions were not drawn from the raw data and where does the report show bias

•    Who wrote the report? Which organizations and individuals were responsible for putting together the report and what are their motives?

Download the report at Analysis of WHO report on Fukushima catastrophe

FEB 17, 2013 PRINT SHARE
For Yuji Hoshino, mushrooms were a way of life. The 50-year-old farmer grew up watching his father raise shiitake mushrooms on their land at the foot of the mountains in Sanno, southern Tochigi Prefecture.

Later, he became the one to yearly cut about 15,000 logs, each about a meter long and the diameter of a coffee saucer, from oak forests near his home. He would stud these logs with specially inoculated spore pegs and then stack them in forests and greenhouses for the crop to mature. Three to eight years later, hundreds of thousands of fleshy, white-and-brown mushrooms would be ready to pick.
[...]
“Log-grown mushrooms were a symbol of safe, chemical-free food. That’s been turned upside down,” said the stocky, self-assured farmer. “I can’t sell my products with pride anymore.”

Meanwhile, the future of the wild plants, animals, and insects in the coppiced oak woodlands where he used to cut logs for the shiitake crop are also threatened.

The same is true throughout northeastern Japan. Because mushrooms are more prone than other crops to absorb the radioactive cesium spread by the disaster, growers continue to suffer even in areas where other farmers have returned to business-as-usual. And because mushroom production is closely entwined with a certain type of forested habitat, troubles in the industry presage ecological as well as human impacts.

Read more at Fukushima radiation threatens to wreak woodland havoc

About 40 percent of consumers who pay attention to production areas when purchasing food do so because they want to avoid radiation-tainted food, a survey by the Consumer Affairs Agency has shown.

According to the survey, 3,531 out of 5,176 respondents said they care about or tend to care about which production regions the food items come from when shopping. Asked why they do so, 40.9 percent of them said it is because they want to purchase food free from radioactive materials.

Of the latter group, 86.1 percent said they are particularly conscious about production areas whey buying “vegetables,” followed by “rice” at 67.3 percent and “seafood” at 63.4 percent. Asked which production areas they hesitate to buy food from, 69.5 percent answered Fukushima Prefecture and 53.3 percent said the entire Tohoku region — Fukushima, Iwate and Miyagi prefectures.

Regarding the government-set standards for radioactive materials in food, only 28.2 percent said the standards are “at a level that is safe enough for those who keep consuming such food throughout their lives.”

[...]

The online survey, conducted on Feb. 14 and 15, covered consumers aged in their 20s through 60s in the disaster-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima and Ibaraki, as well as in such major consumption areas as Saitama, Chiba, central Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe.

Read more at 40% of consumers cautious about food production areas over radiation fears

Reference Consumer survey on radiation contamination of food via Consumer Affairs Agency (PDF in Japanese)

(Trailer with English subtitle)

(日本語字幕付き予告編）

参考リンク　遺伝子組み換え作物と原発、危険性似ている、福島で撮影　仏映画監督（東京新聞）via facebook

(Reuters) – Dozens of crabs, three small sharks and scores of fish thump on the slippery deck of the fishing boat True Prosperity as captain Shohei Yaoita lands his latest haul, another catch headed not for the dinner table but for radioactive testing.

Japan’s government banned commercial fishing in this area, some 200 km (125 miles) northeast of Tokyo, after a devastating 2011 tsunami and the reactor meltdowns and explosions that followed at the nearby Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, or Tepco, has battled since then to keep radioactive water used to cool the crippled reactor from leaking into the ground and the sea.

The walls of a once-bustling fish market that sold Yaoita’s catch of flounder, rockfish, greenling and other sealife in the port of Hisanohama, about 20 km (12 miles) south of the ruined plant, remain in ruins.

The fishermen of Hisanohama, forced out of work by the disaster, have had no choice but to take the only job available – checking contamination levels in fish just offshore from the destroyed nuclear reactor buildings.

“We used to be so proud of our fish. They were famous across Japan and we made a decent living out of them,” said 80-year-old Yaoita, who survived the tsunami by taking on the waves and sailing the six-person True Prosperity out to sea.

“Now the only thing for us is sampling.”

Continue reading at Fukushima fishermen forced to test fish for radiation

okyo Electric Power Co.’s revelation that massive amounts of radioactive water are flowing into the Pacific further raised fears about the harm to marine life.

Tepco estimated that between May 2011 and this month, a staggering 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium, 20 trillion becquerels of cesium and 10 trillion becquerels of strontium may have flowed into the sea in groundwater from under the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear complex.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority will set up an expert panel Sept. 6 to study the effect on marine life, focusing on tritium, which cannot be removed even with the advanced liquid processing system that Tepco plans to restart to clean contaminated water used to cool the crippled reactors as early as next month. ALPS extracts most radioactive materials from tainted water — but not tritium.

[...]
Just as with humans, tritium is discharged from fish through urine, he said.

What is more alarming, Kanda said, is contamination from strontium-90, which tends to accumulate in bones and can cause bone cancer or leukemia, and from cesium-137 and -134, which appear to remain in the ecosystem.

[...]

Read more.

A Japanese fast-food chain has announced plans to grow rice and vegetables on a farm 100 km (60 miles) from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

Yoshinoya Holdings, which sells “gyudon,” or sliced beef over rice, has formed a joint-venture with local farmers to grow onions, cabbage and rice for use in outlets across the country.[...]
The crops will be grown in Shirakawa, to the southwest of the plant, the company said. Yoshinoya said it would ensure that the vegetables were safe.

“We will employ local people in the factory. We think this will lead to support for reconstruction,” Yoshinoya said in a statement.

Japan applies strict food monitoring and says that any products allowed on the market are safe. Despite these assurances, public fears have led to a drop in price for Fukushima produce and huge losses for farmers.

Read more.

Perth, Australia:  It has been 951 days since the devastating impact of the Fukushima catastrophe and every day an average of 400 tonnes of radioactive water is systematically dumped into the Pacific Ocean devastating our food chain.

Largely the general public remain unaware that there is an existing monitoring program for foods from Japan and reports that there have been ceasium contaminated foods imported from Japan and other effected prefectures.

According to a report from FSNAZ titled “Food Inspection Scheme”, how often food is being tested is based on risk assessment  and information gathered on different foods. The report admits that some contaminated foods may have been consumed.

[...]

We are in a cancer epidemic and cancer rates are increasing and will get worse when the radioactive Pacific plume reaches Australia while Australians continue to consume contaminated food from America, China and the  Pacific Ocean.

Australian consumers need protecting and the monitoring program for Japanese imported foods needs.to be stricter and not based on a computer generated data. Australian children and the public are at risk.

A stance can be made by signing petition “Fukushima Import Food Awareness” at www.gopetition.com/petition/fukushima-import-food-awareness.html.

Read more at Fukushima Reaches Australia: Radioactive Caesium Detected in Food Imports

HONG KONG–Taiwan said April 16 it will further tighten regulations on food imports from Japan after forged place-of-origin labels allowed entry of banned products from Fukushima and four other prefectures.

Tokyo has expressed opposition to Taiwan’s new rules, fearing other countries and regions will follow suit.

The Japanese government has already sought an easing of Taiwan’s current ban on food produced or manufactured in Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures over concerns of radiation contamination resulting from the 2011 accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

However, the administration of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou had been strongly criticized over a recent series of food safety issues. It decided to take action after it was revealed in March that some food products produced in those five Japanese prefectures had been imported with phony labels saying they were from elsewhere.

Announced by the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration, the stricter regulations will require every food item imported from Japan to carry an official document that proves place of origin by prefecture. Foods from certain regions and specified products will also require documents that show the results of radiation checks.

When the new regulations take effect after 30 days, a huge amount of paperwork on the Japanese side will become necessary.

Taiwan will require documents on the results of radiation checks in three categories: marine products from Tokyo and Miyagi, Iwate and Ehime prefectures; tea from Tokyo and the prefectures of Shizuoka, Aichi and Osaka; and dairy products, baby food, sugar confectioneries and other select products produced in Tokyo and the prefectures of Miyagi and Saitama.

Some of the prefectures listed in the three categories are far from Fukushima Prefecture. However, a Taiwan FDA official said, “We chose the products based on the results of past (radiation) checks.”

[…]

Read more.

• ５月にも日本食品に新規則　台湾、放射性物質警戒で via 北海道新聞

Japan should check false labeling problems that have given rise to Taiwan’s decision to impose tighter regulations on imported Japanese food before taking the case to the World Trade Organization, the head of an agency dealing with Japan said Tuesday.

Lee Chia-chin, chairman of the Association of East Asian Relations, was responding to remarks made at a news conference earlier in the day by Yoshimasa Hayahsi, Japan’s minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, that Japan does not rule out the possibility of taking the case to the WTO.

Lee said the government came up with the stricter measures after it was discovered in March that food items from five nuclear-affected prefectures had made their way illegally into Taiwan and that their labels had been tampered with.

After the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in the wake of a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, Taiwan banned foods from the five prefectures most affected by radiation from the disaster — Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba.

“Taiwan cannot accept this (the false labeling) and thinks Japan should get to the bottom of the matter,” Lee said.
[…]
Under the new regulations that will take effect May 15, importers of Japanese food products will be required to present certificates of origin to prove that the imports are not from any of the five prefectures. For some imports such as tea, baby food, and dairy and aquatic products, radiation inspection certificates will also be required.

Lee noted that Taiwan is a major consumer of Japanese agricultural products and said it can certainly ask Japan to heed its food safety concerns.

“After Japan has fully investigated the false labeling, it will certainly lessen the pressure to impose stricter regulations,” Lee said.

He said he would advise Japan not to threaten to take the case to the WTO.

With such friendly bilateral relations between the two sides, “we can talk about everything, but taking the case to the WTO could sour bilateral ties,” he said.

Read more.

Eight out of 10 residents of Fukushima prefecture are comfortable buying local produce four year ears after the nuclear accident in 2011, according to a survey by local consumer groups.

Over the last year, this figure has grown by 10 percentage points., indicating growing confidence in the safety of food harvested in the prefecture, and easing concerns despite persistent rumours since the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima No 1 nuclear plant.

When asked which local produce they most often purchased, some 78% said they bought goods harvested in the area, while just 8% said they only bought domestically harvested products that were not from Fukushima or neighbouring prefectures.

Of 1,045 responses, 43.9% said the reason they bought locally processed foods was because they believed the safe, 272.2% cited their taste and 16.7% said they were supporting local industry.

[…]

Last week, Taiwan imposed new restrictions on Japanese food after hundreds of products were recalled when labels were found that disguised the fact that the food came from areas affected by the Fukushima crisis.

Now, all food imports from Japan must now carry certificates to prove they are not from the five banned prefectures worse hit by the disaster, while some also need “radiation inspection certificates,” according to the Taiwan’s Ministry of health and Welfare.

In Hong Kong, officials have been criticised for lax surveillance of food imports, with the possibility that contaminated food has been entering the city unnoticed for years because of deficiencies in safety controls on fresh produce.

In May, the South China Morning Post reported a report criticising surveillance at the Kwai Chung container terminal.

“We do not know if there is more banned food being sold in the city that has not been discovered by the government,” said Helena wong Pik-wan, a Hong Kong politician.

Read more at Fukushima locals confident of produce as neighbours raise inspections

MILAN —
A campaign has begun at the Japan Pavilion of the food-themed world expo in Italy to demonstrate to visitors that food from Fukushima Prefecture is safe despite a nuclear disaster there in 2011.

During the four-day campaign through Wednesday, samples of local foods, such as fruits and Japanese sake, are being offered to highlight the quality control efforts producers have been making since the disaster.

At the pavilion, Norio Hashimoto, an official of the Fukushima prefectural government, said the quality of fruits shipped from the prefecture is “fully vouched for.” He added, “Fukushima is one of the major producers of fruits in the country.”

His colleague, Takeshi Fujita, said the purpose of the campaign is to convey “correct information” about Fukushima foods, but stressed that he does not intend to force it on anyone.

[…]
A 59-year-old visitor said he enjoyed the dried peaches and sake that were served at the event, expressing hope that safety is pursued “sincerely” on matters of food.
[…]

Read more.

Hong Kong (HKSAR) – The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (November 6) that a consignment of fresh vegetables and fruits imported from Japan was found to contain radish and cabbage from prefectures under an import ban. All of the illegally imported products have been marked and sealed and none have entered the market. Follow-up is in progress.

“The CFS found that a consignment of 652 cartons of fresh vegetables and fruits imported from Ishikawa and Nagano in Japan contained 90 cartons of radish from Chiba and 40 cartons of cabbage from Ibaraki.

The CFS immediately marked and sealed all the illegally imported products stored in the warehouse of the importer. None of the products have entered the market. Samples of the products concerned were taken for testing of radiation levels and the results were satisfactory,” a CFS spokesman said.

In response to the Fukushima nuclear power plant incident in Japan in 2011, the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene issued an order under Section 78B of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap.

132) to prohibit the import of vegetables and fruits, milk, milk beverages and milk powder from the five most affected prefectures of Japan, namely Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Chiba and Gunma. The CFS also prohibits the import of all chilled or frozen game, meat and poultry, all poultry eggs and all live, chilled or frozen aquatic products from the five prefectures to Hong Kong, unless accompanied by a certificate issued by the competent authority of Japan certifying that the radiation levels do not exceed the Guideline Levels.
[..]

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BRUSSELS – The European Union has decided to stop requiring radiation screening for some food products imported from Fukushima Prefecture, informed sources have said.

It will be the first time for the EU to exclude foods items from Fukushima from its mandatory check list since the regulation was introduced after the nuclear disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in March 2011.

Specifically, the EU plans to exempt such items as vegetables, fruits other than persimmons and livestock products from the checks, the sources said Wednesday.

The EU will also stop requiring screening certificates for all items currently bound by the rule that are imported from Aomori and Saitama prefectures. Additionally, rice and some other foods produced in other prefectures will be removed from the list, while a handful of edible wild plants will be added.

Japan hopes that the EU’s easing of restrictions will help solidify the notion that there is no scientific basis for maintaining the regulations, sources familiar with the matter said.

South Korea bans imports of certain fishery products from Japan. Taiwan has strengthened its import regulations.
[…]

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TOKYO, Jan 10 — Japan pressed Singapore to ease its ban on Fukushima food imports, following the European Union’s move to relax restrictions on imports from the area, according to media reports today.

Japanese agriculture minister Hiroshi Moriyama said the Asian financial hub would take “proactive” steps to meet Tokyo’s request, after holding talks with Singapore’s minister for national development, reported Jiji Press.

Yesterday the EU began easing restrictions on Japanese food imports imposed after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Under the previous rule, the EU required all food products, excluding alcohol, from Fukushima prefecture to come with radiation inspection certification.

The EU continues to restrict the importation of items such as rice, mushrooms and some fishery products, however.

Singapore has banned imports of certain Fukushima products since 2011.

“I explained the EU’s step to ease” its restriction, Moriyama told Japanese journalists in Singapore.

“I asked for easing of the restriction based on scientific evidence,” Moriyama said, according to Jiji.

[…]
At least 14 countries such as Australia and Thailand have abolished their restrictions on Japanese food imports, while dozens of nations continue to maintain select regulations, according to Kyodo News. — AFP

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HONG KONG – Agricultural minister Yuji Yamamoto said in Hong Kong on Thursday that he has requested the territory to lift a food ban that restricts imports from five Japanese prefectures most affected by a radiation-leak scare following the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.

Imports of Japanese food, including milk, vegetables and fruits, from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures have been banned since March 2011 following the magnitude-9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that led to the nuclear plant meltdowns over worries about contamination by radioactive substances.

However, meat, poultry, eggs and aquatic products can be imported with radiation certificates stating their safety.

[…]

Ko said monitoring will remain for the safety of Hong Kong people.

“We have been relying on a risk- and evidence-based method to decide on the prohibition of fresh food imports from five Japanese prefectures,” Ko told reporters after touring the food fair. “We have continued to examine the progress made in Japan’s handling of the Fukushima nuclear incident,” including the measures they have put in place and test results on the food, he said.

“We will look at all the information and make decisions on a scientific basis. In the upcoming meeting (with Yamamoto), we will explain to them Hong Kong’s position, which, most importantly, is that we will manage food safety based on the well-being of Hong Kong people,” he said.

Read more at Japan urges Hong Kong to lift ban on food from areas near Fukushima plant

[…]

CFS is a unit of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department of Hong Kong’s City government, which is part of China. The CFS continues to test those Japanese imports but hasn’t found any additional shipments with unsafe radiation levels.

And its not for lack of looking. Since one week before CFS found those hot white radishes, turnips and spinach samples, Hong Kong has tested 344,881 samples.

It breaks down this way: 19,420 vegetable samples; 19,338 fruit samples; 2,189 milk and milk beverage samples; 900 milk powder samples; 594 frozen confection samples; 54,468 aquatic product samples; 9,487 meat product smples; 31,744 drink samples, and 206,741 other samples including cereals and snacks.

The totals are through Aug. 22. CFS continues to test samples from Japanese imports, conducting testing around the clock five days a week.

Hong Kong’s continued surveillance for radioactivity is just one sign of how cautious Asia remains about the Fukushima meltdown. Japan has excluded people and crop production in a 310-square-mile zone around the nuclear plants. No deaths or cases of radiation sickness are attributed to the nuclear accident. And, perhaps due to the large exclusion zone, future cancers and deaths from potential exposures are projected to be low.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration treats Fukushima with a periodically updated Import Alert that permits certain Japanese food imports to be detained without inspection.

“Districts may detain, without physical examination, the specified products from firms in the Fukushima, Aomori, Chiba, Gumna, Ibaraki, Iwate, Miyagi, Nagano, Niigata, Saitama Shizuoka, Tochigig, Yamagata and Yamanashi prefectures,” the July 18 Import Alert from FDA says.

Japanese imports from those areas that can still be detained at the U.S. border include:

• Rice, Cultivated, Whole Grain;
• Milk/Butter/Dried Milk Products;
• Filled Milk/Imitation Milk Products;
• Fish, N.E.C.;
• Venus Clams;
• Sea Urchin/Uni;
• Certain Meat, Meat Products and Poultry, specifically(beef, boar, bear, deer, duck, hare and pheasant products;
• Yuzu Fruit;
• Kiwi Fruit;
• Vegetables/Vegetable Products;
•  Baby Formula Products; and
• Milk based formulas.

Read more at Hong Kong still testing food imports for Fukushima’s radiation 

Taipei, Dec. 16 (CNA) The government is to put on hold a planned opening of food products from radiation-affected prefectures in Japan amid public misgivings about food safety, a Cabinet spokesman said Friday.

Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said in a news conference Friday that the Cabinet “has to first ensure a sound inspection and management mechanism,” before talking about any opening to food products from the affected areas of Japan.

Hsu pointed out that Premier Lin Chuan (林全) has stressed the importance of “rebuilding public trust in the government’s management of food safety,” after presiding over a cross-agency meeting the previous day.

The premier also said that “without a sound inspection and management mechanism, there can be no question of such an opening,” according to Hsu.

Taiwan banned food imports from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown following a massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan on March 11, 2011.

[…]

Read more.