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Will Fukushima Produce Be Exported As Foreign Aid?

Some of the food that the Japanese government sends to poor countries as foreign aid might come from Fukushima prefecture, and anti-nuclear activists are angry about it:

The activists don’t care if the food passes safety inspections. They seem to have already concluded that “Fukushima = “deadly radiation,” so any food from that prefecture is dangerous. One of the women in the video is so scared of radiation that she sent her children away from Tokyo. Forget about whether there is any credible threat to human health: just think about all the children who are in danger!!!!!!!1!!

It is a sad situation for the farmers of Fukushima. They’ve worked so hard to grow their crops, and thankfully, most of the prefecture’s agricultural products have been found to be safe. It was feared that rice would be heavily contaminated, but that a majority of Fukushima rice has passed tests. Despite this, there is still great ignorance and fear about radiation, and an anti-nuclear lobby that is more that happy to spread sensational (and groundless) claims about about the dangers of Fukushima produce. A lot of farmers will be losing money because people wrongly believe that their crops are dangerous.

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17 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - November 8, 2011 at 10:48 am

Categories: Japanese Food Tags:

yankdownunder

The YouTube video is by the “Shingetsu News Agency”.
This is just a personal blog of
Michael Penn
President
Shingetsu News Agency
We can be contacted at shingetsunewsagency@gmail.com

I thought the food aid Japan sent to poor countries was rice
that the US forced Japan to import.
Anonymous

So much ado about nothing. I bet these activists sleep in aluminum foil blankets to avoid being bathed in radiation.
Anonymous

makes me want to go to fukushima to eat their food more and more. i feel so bad for the farmers, there will be a lot of diminishing business in that area due to false claims like in the video…

Cyban

I feel exactly the same, poor people who have a real tough time. I hope they somehow will get strengthened out of this or atleast get back to how it used to be before.

Breastfed43

she is pretty hot
Piglet

You are very naive if you believe that these products are tested for radiation. 99.99% of the products are not tested and the tests are very random. It is fair to assume that the majority of products are safe, however it is statistically impossible that none of the products are contaminated (given the extent of contamination around Fukushima). It is not very moral to export untested food the consumers don’t want because of safety risks as foreign aid. And this is not fear mongering. I would recommend the producers and the government to implement systematic radiation testing.

Level3

There has to be some reasonable compromise, because you can’t test every single grain of rice. That is impossible. Where did you get your “99.99%” figure? (Could be true, just wondering how you know this) What would you feel is a good enough sample size? 50% of all packs of whatever? (still way beyond testing capacity I’d assume) 20%? 10%? 1%? Surely you aren’t arguing for 100% testing, right? Keep in mind that statistics and standard deviations of contamination have to also be placed in context with the amount consumed by the typical person. If you get 1 bowl out of 100 bowls of rice with 5x the “safe” limit, the possible health effects are as statistically insignificant. If you eat 5x the “safe” limit every day, then yes, it may be a problem. Then keep everything in context with the Banana Equivalent Dose.

It is quite likely that the “banana diet” fad a year or two back caused
more exposure to food-borne radiation to more people than the consumption of
all the cleared Fukushima produce to date!

Even “safe” areas will have their own set of stats regarding contamination levels. Produce from “safe” areas that isn’t being tested (is it?) might just happen to be grown in the runoff of an old hospital with a few dozen cans of high-level radioactive waste carelessly buried in a hole that have been leaking into the groundwater for decades. And you’ll never know.

Sweet dreams.

Piglet

I got my figures from meetings with specialists (I work in this field). Everybody agrees (both domestic and foreign) that improving the testing system is necessary.
Of course, it wouldn’t be realistic to test 100% of the products. However, there is a margin between 0.01% and 100%. I am not trying to scare anybody, but this is simple economic and epidemiological rationality:

- domestic and foreign consumers are in significant proportions refusing to buy uncertified products from contaminated areas, so it is a no brainer to spend money for tests if you don’t want your products to remain unsold.

- it is reasonable to reduce the overall risk coming from radiation, bacteria, chemical pollutants…. I doubt there would be an important epidemiological impact from this disaster, however it is reasonable to apply stringent levels of food safety. A large scale epidemiological study has been launched in Fukushima, but it will take many years (decades) before conclusions could be raised.

At an individual level, the best recommendation I could give is to diversify as much as possible your food diet (don’t buy always the same vegetables, change brands regularly, etc…). First it is healthier, second you dilute the risks.

Piglet

Anyway my point was: is is OK to give untested food (unwanted by consumers) as food aid? I don’t know the answer, but the question needs to be raised.

Anonymous

The “banana diet” isn’t likely to have caused as much or more exposure to food-borne radiation (per calorie) than the Fukushima produce as most organic food sources contain potassium and other minutely radioactive isotopes.

Level3

What is “minutely radioactive”?

Anyway, it’s the nature of statistics. If 1 million dieters increase their food-borne radioactive isotope intake by 50% for 6 months due to a fad, the net exposure (and thus risk) can in theory be much greater than that of 10,000 people increasing their food-borne radioactive isotope intake by 500% for 6 months due to contamination. Add in that a diverse diet (as Piglet notes) from diverse sources makes it quite improbable that you could maintain a +500% food-borne exposure for 6 months (though living in the fallout zone and contamination of food between the time you buy it and and the time you put it in your mouth because your kitchen may be dusted with radioactive particles is possible, but a completely different issue).

Whereas the Banana-dieter deliberately chooses the more radioactive food every single day, practically guaranteeing a constant elevated exposure.

Tony D

hah, I love the “spread love” message. “Love” won’t fill those empty bellies, dear…
http://sugabellyrocks.com/ Sugabelly

Have you thought about the people who will have to eat this food from Fukushima? Have you asked whether if given a chance to decide for themselves , if they had an informed choice, they would want to eat food from Fukushima?

Is it because the food is going as aid so you think the people receiving it don’t have a right to be concerned about their health?

Who cares what Japanese tests say, a person still has the right to make the final decision on what kind of food goes into their bodies and it’s not okay to just foist food that the people in your country refuse to eat out of safety concerns on others just because they are poor and have no choice.

Food from Fukushima should either be destroyed or put up for sale to allow people with the means CHOOSE to buy it and eat it not given to those who have no choice due to hunger even though they might be unwittingly putting themselves in danger by eating it.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

Have you thought about the people who will have to eat this food from Fukushima?

Not very hard to think about what it would be like, since I’ve been eating food from Fukushima.

if they had an informed choice

I fully agree. People should be making informed choices.

Who cares what Japanese tests say

Who cares about the results of radiation testing? So now you’re advocating an uninformed choice based on ignoring data. uhhh.okay

Unfortunately, starving people are usually not well-educated, so it is very easy for them to give in to fear and hysteria about “dangerous” food that isn’t really dangerous. In some African countries it has already happened to genetically modified food aid, and now it will probably happen to “contaminated” food from Japan.

http://sugabellyrocks.com/ Sugabelly

Because we don’t want genetically modified food. Can’t we decide for ourselves? So just because Africans don’t want genetically modified food, we’re giving into hysteria? Have you ever considered that perhaps we only like all natural, all organic, non-modified food?

http://www.japanprobe.com James

All “non-modified” food has been modified by humans.

The crops that are grown today are very different from plants that existed in nature before humans found them. Thousands of years of selective breeding have modified the genes of plants, creating the food crops we have today. You are eating genetically modified food every day – even if you think you aren’t.

Level3

It’s people like you who get third world leaders to destroy tons of food aid bound for starving mouths, because of unfounded BS fear-mongering about genetically modified food. People like you who convince first world mothers that vaccinations cause autism, such that whooping cough and other fatal diseases are making a comeback and killing children.

Yes, because of people like you, Sugabelly, PEOPLE ACTUALLY DIE, due to your hypothetical fears.

For you the hypothetical very slight risk of health effects is more important than people ACTUALLY DYING RIGHT NOW.

Insane.

Wake up.

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