Radiation discovery fans food fears in Japan (found contamination on two more vegetables)

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By KELLY OLSEN and JOE McDONALD

TOKYO (AP) - At a bustling Tokyo supermarket Sunday, wary shoppers avoided one particular bin of spinach.

The produce came from Ibaraki prefecture in the northeast, where radiation was found in spinach grown up to 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Another bin of spinach - labeled as being from Chiba prefecture, west of Tokyo - was sold out.

"It's a little hard to say this, but I won't buy vegetables from Fukushima and that area," said shopper Yukihiro Sato, 75.

Snip: On Sunday, the government banned shipments of milk from one area and spinach from another and said it found contamination on two more vegetables - canola and chrysanthemum greens - and in three more prefectures. The Health Ministry also advised a village in Fukushima prefecture not to drink tap water because of radioactive iodine in its supply. It stressed, however, that the amounts remained minuscule and posed no health threat.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110320/D9M352281.html

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Chiyoko Kaizuka, 83-year old farmer, weeds a spinach field Sunday, March 20, 2011 in Moriya, Ibaragi Prefecture, Japan. Japan announced the first signs that contamination from its tsunami-crippled nuclear complex has seeped into the food chain, saying that radiation levels in spinach and milk from farms near the facility exceeded government safety limits. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

[truedelphi]

1. You cannot have a near meltdown (or actual meltdown) without having

Nuclear contamination.

Eight foot by eight foot hole in the reactor wall. Lots of space for radiating material to get outside.

[subterranean]

2. The Japanese gov't keeps saying that radiation levels pose no immediate health risk.

It's that "immediate" qualifier that bothers me.

[daleo]

3. It's not dangerous, but don't drink it

Mixed message, for sure.

[Art_from_Ark]

4. Interesting that the photo shows a farmer in Moriya

which is about 110 miles from the reactors, and out of the 75-mile zone.

At any rate, the supermarket I visited yesterday in southern Ibaraki had no spinach. But there is some fresh spinach in my refrigerator that was grown by a local farmer, 100 miles from the reactors. What to do, what to do...

[desertrat777]

5. Japan and capitalism at odds in this global disaster

Japan's food supply is already in trouble - and they will be needing basic foods like milk and vegetables that are not contaminated. Here is a prime example of how capitalism is at odds with meeting the needs of the people, or relating in a sustainable manner with the environment and with the plants and animals that call our planet home.

Capitalism has profits as the bottom line, yet capitalism has been touted as a system that best meets the needs of the people - right?

Of course, capitalism best meets the "needs" of the capitalists, and this means sustaining the most efficient methods of exploiting the work efforts by raking in the "surplus capital" (if there is such a thing as "surplus capital") of the workers. It's like a big herd of cattle, really. So what if a few of the cattle die from mad cow disease or freeze in the winter or are eaten by coyotes? The main thing is to have a big herd, to maximize profits from milking the cows or sending them to the slaughterhouse.

President Obama stated recently that nuclear energy was an important part of our energy production, and that it had risks like other forms of energy, and he mentioned the BP Gulf oil spill as an example. Apparently this ongoing loss of human life and damage to the environment is considered acceptable, if it makes profits.

In a needs-based economy, profits take a back seat to caring for the needs of the people and the planet. In a needs-based economy, there would be zero nuclear power plants, a strong focus on sustainable energy and on conservation, on full 100% employment, on health care for all (this is not health insurance), care of the young and the elderly, free education, enough leisure time to give life meaning, and preventing significant disparity of wealth. In stark contrast to this wholesome manner of relating to self, others, and the world, we have capitalism, a system where it's every man for himself, a system where money rules by divide and conquer, and short-term profit trumps the needs of the people every time.

One last thought. Scientists at General Electric resigned because they felt that the reactor design actually used at Fukushima was unsafe, yet GE installed these reactors anyway, not only at Fukushima, but also in the United States. Who is going to hold GE accountable for the failure of these poorly designed, unsafe nuclear reactors? Who is going to pay to renovate or shut down these aging reactors?

Think about it.

[Demeter]

6. Japan's Business Model and Its Economic Model Are Dust

Radioactive dust, specifically.