ONAMI, Fukushima Prefecture--Checks for radioactive cesium at more than 150 rice farms in the Onami district of Fukushima city have so far turned up four where levels are at zero or significantly below the national safety standard, officials said Nov. 18.
ONAMI, Fukushima Prefecture--Checks for radioactive cesium at more than 150 rice farms in the Onami district of Fukushima city have so far turned up four where levels are at zero or significantly below the national safety standard, officials said Nov. 18.The prefectural government has been inspecting all farms since high levels of radioactive cesium were detected in rice samples from one farm in the district on Nov. 15. The four were the first to be tested.Prefectural authorities also plan to re-test rice samples from other areas where radioactivity higher than acceptable levels were found in post-harvest inspections concluded in October.It will also test rice from paddies situated in similar geographical conditions with the one in question.Prefecture officials said no radioactive cesium was detected in rice produced by two of the first four Onami farmers inspected. For the remaining two, levels of 11 becquerels per kilogram and 22 becquerels per kg, respectively, were recorded. Both are far lower than the permissible national standard of 500 becquerels per kg.The prefecture had finished ascertaining where rice was distributed by 146 farms out of 154 in the Onami district by Nov. 18.The prefecture confirmed that 70 bags of Onami rice, totaling about 2 tons, had been sold to rice retailers in the cities of Fukushima and Date, but none had been purchased by consumers.Onami-grown rice is also being stored by the JA agricultural cooperative and at the homes of farmers or their relatives for private consumption.The JA Shin-Fukushima held an emergency meeting on Nov. 18 attended by about 100 local farmers. JA officials asked them to store harvested rice and refrain from selling, transferring or eating the grain.The farmers said they would ask the central government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, to purchase or compensate them for the rice. They also demanded thorough inspections of all rice bags."I cultivated rice because the city, the prefecture and the national government gave me the green light," said a farmer whose grain recorded high levels of radioactive cesium. "So, I'm at a loss to understand how such a situation occurred in my paddies."The 52-year-old told The Asahi Shimbun, "I hope I will be the last to have high-level numbers (of radioactive cesium)."The farmer had harvested 840 kg of Koshihikari brand rice in early October. He planned to sell part of the rice to the JA and use the rest for personal consumption.Even though he was told rice from his paddies would be OK, he asked the JA to test it just in case, he said."I thought the radiation levels might be high, just as I had suspected," he said after he was informed of the test results.His paddies are located between a mountain and a small river. The soil on his farm does not contain much sand, which is said to help rice absorb radioactive cesium, he said."I want the central government and TEPCO, which promoted nuclear power generation, to respond to my case properly," he said.(This article was written by Shunsuke Kimura and Ryo Inoue.)