[Japan] Staple Scare: Radioactive Rice in Fukushima

WSJ ^ | 11/17/11

[TigerLikesRooster]

November 17, 2011, 1:09 PM JST

Staple Scare: Radioactive Rice in Fukushima

While Japan has battled a series of food scares in the wake of the nuclear crisis, the latest revelation hits at the heart of the country’s proud national staple: Radioactive cesium exceeding the government limit was detected for the first time in rice harvested in Fukushima prefecture.

About 630 becquerels of cesium per kilogram were found in a rice sample taken from a farm in Fukushima City, the prefectural government said Wednesday night. The levels measure above the government-mandated limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram of harvested rice, prompting immediate calls to limit shipments from the area.

The detection is likely to fuel consumer anxieties already rife with concerns that products such as beef and green tea tainted with unsafe levels of radioactive contaminants have made their way onto store shelves. Although the tainted rice was being readied for shipment, the health ministry said it is believed that none has yet to reach the marketplace.

The Fukushima prefectural government urged the 154 farms located in Oonami, the district in Fukushima City where the rice sample was taken, to suspend shipments. Oonami is located about 60 kilometers away from Fukushima Daiichi plant. Meanwhile, the health ministry asked the national government for a formal temporary suspension.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[razorback-bert]

Glow in the dark rice.

[TigerLikesRooster]

If people eat it and they would probably glow, too. Some years later, they might be glowing patients with a shaved head, undergoing a chemotherapy.

[autumnraine]

And Japan’s brilliant idea to keep the farmers from bankruptcy is to use taxpayers money to purchase the (radioactive) food, then ship it to third world countries as credit for charity.

Ummm yeah.

Their logic is apparently it’s better to die from cancer than be hungry.

Needless to say, there is a large group of Japanese who are protesting this “shameful idea.”

[Larry Lucido]

Probably not, if it only exceeds the “government limit” by 25%. “Government limits” are set deliberately low. Like that 25 mile per hour curve that you could easily take at 40 miles per hour in any kind of emergency.

Without more data, this story is more fear mongering.

[Chainmail]

I would expect that this would be a prime time to sell US domestic rice to those poor people in Japan.

Tastes great, less killing.

[BrewingFrog]

You do realize that a kilo of Brazil nuts has a normal reading of around 444 Bq/Kg?

There is a great deal of naturally occurring radioactivity, and the earlier commenter was correct: Governments set “safety” standards absurdly low. Just another in the endless stream of hobgoblins they can trot out before the population...

[Moleman]

I would expect that this would be a prime time to sell US domestic rice to those poor people in Japan.

Yeah right. Great idea in theory but Japans markets are CLOSED to foreigners. Tariffs and national pride make it very difficult to sell goods in Japan.