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Radioactive cesium was detected in the brown rice in the preliminary testing. Total 52 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was found, with 23 becquerels/kg of cesium-134 and 29 becquerels/kg of cesium-137. The amount was far below the national provisional safety limit (500 becquerels/kg total radioactive cesium).

Next to detect cesium in rice was Chiba.

From Mainichi Shinbun (8/26/2011):

Chiba Prefecture announced on August 25 that 47 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was found in the mochi-rice (glutinous rice) grown in Shirai City in Chiba Prefecture in the preliminary test before the harvest to survey the effect of radioactive materials from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. The amount of radioactive cesium was far below the national provisional safety limit (500 becquerels/kg). It is the second case of radioactive cesium detection in the country, the first one being in Hokota City in Ibaraki Prefecture.

According to the division for safe agriculture promotion in Chiba prefectural government, the brown rice taken at two locations within Shirai City on August 22 was tested. From one location, 47 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected, with cesium 134 22 becquerels/kg and cesium-137 25 becquerels/kg. The prefectural government plans to conduct the full survey on the brown rice after the harvest by the end of August, and if the rice tests under the provisional safety limit it will be allowed to be shipped.But in Fukushima, hardly any radioactive cesium was detected in the early harvest rice.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (8/26/2011):

Fukushima Prefecture announced on August 26 the test results of the early-harvest rice harvested in a location in Nihonmatsu City, two locations in Motomiya City, and one location in Koriyama City.

From the location in Nihonmatsu City, 22 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was found. No radioactive cesium was detected in all the other locations. Based on the results, the prefectural government has allowed the rice harvested in these locations, except for one in Motomiya City, to be shipped. It will be the first shipment of rice from Fukushima after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident.

According to Fukushima Prefecture, two types of early-harvest rice harvested on August 25 and 26 were tested. When the rice in the Nihonmatsu City location was milled, no radioactive materials were detected. As to the location in Motomiya City (Arai-mura), the testing was done on all rice fields. If the results show the level of radioactive cesium is less than the provisional safety limit, the rice will be allowed to be shipped.

These cities are located in "Naka-dori" (middle third) of Fukushima Prefecture where highly radioactive rice hay has been found. 500,000 becquerels/kg of cesium was found in rice hay in Koriyama City, and in Motomiya City, 57 kilometers west of Fukushima I Nuke Plant, the number was even higher at 690,000 becquerels/kg. For your reference, Fukushima's radioactive cesium detection limit, according to the prefecture: 10 becquerels/kg

Radioactive cesium (cesium-137) in rice in Fukushima before the accident: ND to 0.14 becquerels/kg, after milling Radioactive cesium (cesium-137) in rice in Chiba before the accident: ND, after milling

Radioactive cesium (cesium-137) in rice in Ibaraki before the accident: ND to 0.045 becquerel/kg, after milling (source data for radioactive cesium in rice in Fukushima, Chiba, Ibaraki from Japan Chemical Analysis Center, from 2000 to 2009)

Prefectural governments began approving farmers to ship their harvest if test results showed samples from their produce did not show cesium exceeding the limit. Still, rice millers are concerned about buying new crops from areas near the plant as the current cesium standard, applied to brown rice, doesn’t ensure the safety of its by- products, including bran.

Rice Bran Cesium levels in rice bran, an ingredient used in Japanese compound feed for livestock, is about seven times as high as brown rice, said Ryo Kimura, the chairman of Japan Rice Millers and Distributors Cooperative. Because of this, feed makers are reluctant to buy bran made from brown rice that may contain more than 40 becquerels a kilogram of cesium, he said. Brown rice is polished to produce milled rice for sale to retailers and by-products are shipped to makers of cooking oil, pickles and animal feed.

Fukushima Rice Japan set the maximum allowed level of cesium in food about a week after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, based on recommendations from the International Commission on Radiological Protection. The health ministry set the rice ceiling at 500 becquerels a kilogram, while the agriculture ministry’s limit for feed is 300 becquerels. The agriculture ministry allowed rice planting in Fukushima and neighboring prefectures in April, excluding paddy fields containing more than 5,000 becquerels of cesium per kilogram.

Lower Prices “Consumers who see the current cesium standard as lenient won’t buy rice from polluted areas,” said Nobuyuki Chino, president of Continental Rice Corp. in Tokyo. “Wholesalers are seeking rice that tested negative for cesium as they know grain containing radioactivity, even if the amount is smaller than the official standard, won’t sell well.” Stockpiles may increase by more than 100,000 tons by next June because of a weak demand and a good harvest this year, dragging down prices, said Chino.

Low demand for rice harvested in eastern Japan, affected by radiation fallout from the Fukushima plant, is reflected in a price gap between Tokyo and Osaka grain exchanges, Chino said. Rice for November delivery on the Tokyo Grain Exchange settled at 14,400 yen ($184) a bag on Oct. 12, 4 percent cheaper than the price on the Kansai Commodities Exchange in the western city of Osaka. The Kansai exchange trades rice produced in western Japan, while the Tokyo bourse handles rice grown in the east, including Fukushima prefecture.

Stricter Control The government has been slow to take measures to ease safety concerns as tighter regulation will boost costs for radiation testing, adding troubles to the nation struggling with swelling fiscal deficits, said Naoki Kazama, an upper-house lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party of Japan. Stricter control may also increase a ban on shipments of local farm products and cause shortages, sending producers out of business and boosting compensation payments by Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant.

“The government should put a priority on protecting human health, especially of our children,” Kazama said in an interview in Tokyo. “Now they are paying consideration to the interests of various parties evenly.” Kazama has proposed that all foods be tested for radioactive contamination and their radiation levels be labeled. The health ministry, which rejected the proposal as unfeasible, plans to revise cesium standards in food in line with recommendations from the Food Safety Commission.

Health Effects An expert panel on the commission compiled a report in July that said more than 100 millisieverts of cumulative effective doses of radiation over a lifetime could increase the risk of health effects in humans. The amount doesn’t include radiation from nature and medical exposure, it said.

The national government restricted the cultivation of rice in the no-entry zone, planned evacuation zone, and evacuation-ready zone (which was abolished on September 30) based on the Special Measure for Nuclear Disaster Act.

he farmer planted "Koshihikari" rice in his 120-are rice paddies within the evacuation-ready zone, and he has already harvested 1.8 tonnes of rice.

According to the Food Control Law, the rice harvested in the restricted areas must be discarded. In response to the prefectural government's advice, the farmer answered, "I grow as I please. I want to sell the rice that I grow."

According to Fukushima Prefecture, there are 12 farmers who grew rice in the restricted areas. 11 farmers have followed the advice and discarded the harvested rice or given it up for research.

The prefectural government says, "If the consumers know that there is rice grown in the restricted areas, it may cause anxiety and confusion. We would like [the farmer] to consider such consequences."Ha. For this particular prefectural government to say that is too rich for me. Outside the restricted areas, they simply sample-tested the soil, ditto for the harvested rice. Locations that were found with highly contaminated rice hay were all allowed to grow rice. (Planting the rice came before the discovery of contaminated rice hay.) The rice from one particular location tested 500 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium, and the rice was grown in the soil with only 3,000 becquerels/kg of cesium. There are other locations whose rice exceeded 100 becquerels/kg. They were all good to sell (though the prefectural government ended up buying all of 500 becquerels/kg cesium rice).They should measure the cesium content of the rice that this farmer grew. If it is no different from the rest of Fukushima rice that are being sold, they should allow it to be sold.

The testing of harvested rice was completed on October 12 with Nihonmatsu City, and as rice from all districts tested lower than the national provisional safety limit the shipment of rice is allowed in all 48 municipalities that planted rice this year.

Rice from 1,174 locations were tested, in 82% of those locations or 964 locations no radioactive materials were detected. Only one location tested more than 200 becquerels/kg of radioactive materials [cesium].

Therefore, Fukushima Prefecture considers the rice grown in Fukushima is safe. The prefectural government is planning to send the governor and other city officials to the Tokyo metropolitan area to appeal to consumers and to call for increased use of Fukushima rice in restaurants and school lunches in order to counter the "baseless rumors".The NHK article has an accompanying news clip, where you get to see how the "testing" was done at the Fukushima prefectural government. A government worker is waving a scintillation meter over a plastic bag that contains a small amount of brown rice. He spends about 2 seconds at most for each bag.

If you recall, waving a scintillation meter over the meat cow was how they were testing the meat for radiation at first. We know how that ended up.　In the "main" test after the rice harvest, they tested 2 samples per district (villages and towns before they were incorporated into nearby large cities), except for one district in Shirakawa City where 500 becquerels/kg of cesium was detected in the preliminary test. There, if the testing was done according to what the Fukushima prefectural government had announced, samples from two locations per 15 hectares in the district were measured.

But good luck persuading the consumers who refuse to buy Fukushima rice, when a rice farmer in Fukushima is not sending his crop this year to his family members and relatives because of radioactive cesium, no matter how it is "below the safety limit". According to Asahi Shinbun (10/13/2011),

A man, aged 69, grows "Koshihikari" brand rice in Mizuhara district in Fukushima City where 104 becquerels/kg [of radioactive cesium] was detected in the "main" testing. He said, "I have no choice but to tell my grandchild who lives far away to buy rice somewhere else".

He always sends a year supply of rice to his second daughter's family who lives in Sapporo City. He also sends rice to relatives and acquaintances in Fukushima City. But this year, it will be difficult to do so [he probably won't send the rice this year].

Professor Tazaki collected the soil from the rice paddies in Nagadoro District of Iitate-mura, area with very high radiation, when she visited Fukushima Prefecture in late June. At her home in Kanazawa City, she planted the seedlings of "Koshihikari" which were germinated in Tawara-machi in Kanazawa City on the soil from Iitate-mura.

She harvested the rice in mid September, had it analyzed at a laboratory in Fukui Prefecture for cesium-137 in various parts of the rice and calculated the radiation levels per kilogram. The highest cesium-137 concentration of 2,600 becquerels/kg was found in (unprocessed) rice, 2,200 becquerels/kg from the straw, and 1,500 becquerels/kg from the roots. 50,000 becquerels/kg was detected from the soil itself.

To compare, "Koshihikari" rice planted in the rice paddies in Tawara-machi was also analyzed but no radioactive materials were detected at all.

Professor Tazaki says, "I myself was very shocked to find that the edible part of the rice had the most radiation. The decontamination of the soil should be carried out as soon as possible". She will teach farmers in Minami Soma City in Fukushima on a decontamination method using diatomite unique to Ishikawa Prefecture.Professor Tazaki found a bacterium that absorbs radioactive materials like uranium and thorium in Tanzania earlier this year, where she taught geology after she retired from Kanazawa University in 2009.Her result makes me very suspicious of the results announced by Fukushima Prefecture. Iitate-mura does have high soil contamination but it is by no means the highest. Judging by the rice hay contamination there are many other locations within Fukushima that may have radiation levels just as high and still grow rice because they lie outside the 30 kilometer radius from the plant. And yet the prefectural government says it's found 500 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium at most from one location, and the rest is below 200 becquerels/kg.

It is also possible that the professor scraped the top soil only, whereas farmers in Fukushima tilled deeper and thus mixing the highly contaminated soil in the top 5 centimeters with the uncontaminated soil below, lowering the overall radiation.Well, despite the official ban with the threat of fines, the rice grew in Iitate-mura after all as at least one farmer spread the seed rice directly in the rice paddies. And as this Iitate-mura villager tweets, the rice has grown better than ever with far less work and resources. Why not test that too for radiation, instead of cutting it down?

Today, about 50 parents and the city officials visited the local JA, where the JA officials explained the testing procedures.

JA will test both brown rice and polished rice before shipping, for radioactive materials.

Also, other municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture will switch to the new crop of rice starting next month. They are currently deciding on whose rice to use. Pressure is of course on to use the rice harvested in Fukushima, which even some rice farmers wouldn't feed their family members with (see my post here, bottom third).

For consumers outside Fukushima Prefecture, there is no way of telling whether a bag of new rice contains Fukushima rice, if it is a bag of "blended" rice. There is no requirement to list the places of origin if the rice from different locations are blended. All the label will say is "made in Japan".Convenience store "bento" and "onigiri" is very likely to feature rice from Fukushima. Some stores at least prominently declare that they use Fukushima rice.

While consumers can still avoid, if they want to, Fukushima rice by avoiding "blended" rice and avoiding buying bento at convenience stores, school children cannot.A nation is utterly broken when the leaders think nothing of using children as propaganda tools, and excoriate those citizens who dare raise their voices. It's not just Fukushima Prefecture either.No end in sight of Japanese nuclear horror.

There should be more than 3 rice farmers in each town/village, and the farmers have more than one rice paddy.My second suspicion: Why don't they incinerate the samples to really measure below a decimal point, if they do care about safety for the consumers?

before the Fukushima accident, the highest density of radioactive cesium from Fukushima rice (white rice though, not brown rice) was 0.629 becquerels/kg back in 1977, from rice grown in Fukushima City. (data: Japan Chemical Analysis Center)My third suspicion: How did the prefecture test the samples?

Were the samples given to them by the farmers, or did the officials go to the locations and took the samples from the field?Saitama Prefecture was busted this time for trying to do the former to test the tea, like it always does when testing the safety of food. The prefecture announced the intention to test the tea, and the tea farmers were to submit the samples by a given date.There seems to be hardly any public organization in Japan that sides with the consumers.

Farm soil in Watari District in Fukushima was never officially tested for radioactive materials. An NPO (FoE Japan) tested soil samples from Watari with the help of Professor Yamauchi of Kobe University, but they are not from rice paddies or fields. The Fukushima prefectural government still doesn't test it. I am very curious to know the radiation levels in the farm soil in Watari and elsewhere where radioactive cesium has been detected in rice exceeding the provisional limit.

“In the wake of the nuclear accident, many people are expecting that the amount of rice to hit the market will fall this year,” Nobuyuki Chino, who heads the Tokyo market’s rice futures trading committee, told reporters. It might take “several days” for trading to become more stable, said Yoshiaki Watanabe, the president of the Tokyo exchange.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Fukushima Prefecture and Miyagi Prefecture have been discussing the ways to store the contaminated rice hay and to test radioactive materials after the cows are processed into meat. As the result, [the government is satisfied that] the contaminated rice hay has been confirmed to have been clearly separated from other feed and covered with plastic sheets or to have been buried in the ground so that it cannot be used as feed. As long as the meat tests below the provisional safety limit, the government will allow the shipping.

As soon as the same condition is achieved in Iwate andn Tochigi Prefectures, the government will lift the shipping ban there.

The Ministry of Health and Labor wanted the contaminated rice hay out of the cattle farms as a condition to lift the ban. On the other hand, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fukushima/Miyagi Prefectures insisted the rice hay remain within the farms as long as it was separated from the cows, because it would be hard for the farms to secure the storage space outside the farms.So the Ministry of Health and Labor lost. This is the Ministry that's supposed to protect consumers.

Will they test all the cows? No they won't. Not even in Fukushima. They only test the meat of the cows raised in the planned evacuation zone and evacuation-ready zone right outside the 20 kilometer radius from Fukushima I Nuke Plant. For everywhere else in Fukushima Prefecture, the first cow to be shipped from a cattle farm will be tested. If that passes the test, all cows can be sold.

Even when they do test, they will just do the simple test using "affordable" instruments that cost only a few thousand dollars and take only 15 minutes to test, and as long as the number is below 250 becquerels/kg they won't test further. Only if it goes above 250 becquerels/kg, they will use expensive instruments that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take 1 hour to test. What about the news at the end of July that radioactive cesium is NOT distributed evenly in the meat, not even within the same part?

According to the Fukushima prefectural government, the cattle farms were located in Koriyama City (2 farms), Kitakata City (2 farms) and Soma City (1 farm). The rice hay from one farm in Koriyama City tested 500,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. In the farm in Soma City, the hay had 123,000 becquerels/kg cesium, and in Kitakata, 39,000 becquerels/kg.These cities are much further away from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant than Minami-Soma City, where the first case of radioactive beef was traced back.Distance and direction from Fukushima I Nuke Plant:Koriyama City: 60 kilometers, westKitakata City: 105 kilometers, west by northwestSoma City: 43 kilometers, northIf the rice hay left on the rice fields accumulated that much radioactivity, particularly in Koriyama, it is definitely not fit for humans to remain. Not to mention the rice field is not fit for growing rice, though it is far too late, as the rice fields in Tohoku are already long planted.

Officials have tested rice from more than 400 spots in Fukushima prefecture. The highest level of cesium previously found was 136 becquerels per kilogram, prefectural official Kazuhiko Kanno said.News of the elevated radiation level in rice from Nihonmatsu city, 55 kilometers (35 miles) west of the nuclear plant, set off alarm in the Japanese media.

Extend and pretend. The national government wanted to pretend to the farmers, to the citizens of Japan and to the outside world that everything was normal, and insisted the farmers in Fukushima till the land and plant just like last year, and the rice farmers in Niigata to reduce their crop as agreed last year. Many Fukushima farmers, even though their good senses told them that might be a bad idea, went along for whatever reason, tilled the land and planted.

To the defense of Fukushima farmers, I am aware that there are many who stopped farming after the accident, and stopped selling their produce because they do not want to force potentially contaminated food on the consumers. Another "un-confirmable" evidence of the national government's culpability is one particular tweet from March which I cannot locate any more but I remember very vividly. It was from someone whose family was the rice farmer in Niigata Prefecture. The JA (agricultural producer co-op) in the area held a meeting and decided to increase the area for planting rice because they thought the rice production in Fukushima would be significantly reduced because of the nuclear accident. To that request, the national government (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) answered not to bother, and told them to reduce the area for planting rice as scheduled.

No doubt they were soothed by the comforting message from Dr. Shunichi Yamashita, who was all over Fukushima preaching it was safe and everything was OK. As the result, radioactive cesium, plutonium, cobalt, and whatever else fell on top of the soil were turned over with the soil and buried deeper and mixed with clean soil.

And this national government under the new administration continues to say it will be responsible for decontamination. It is as if they wanted the soil contamination to go deeper so that the decontamination would be on a much, much bigger scale than otherwise, creating bigger and costlier projects for the well-connected companies and individuals. The minister who will be in charge of decontamination and other massive cleanup efforts says we have to share the pain of Fukushima, even as the pain was partly caused and made worse by his government to begin with.

I suppose they could justify the astronomical scale of decontamination by saying "it will create jobs in the area", which is exactly what they said when they promoted nuclear power plants in rural areas of Japan in the 1960s.

"Until early spring, produce was contaminated (on the surface with radioactive materials) that the No. 1 plant discharged into the atmosphere. But now, the major route of contamination is through plant roots," said Kunikazu Noguchi, a radiation protection expert at Nihon University. Whether absorption by plant roots can affect human health remains to be seen. Experts are warning that the region's soil and agricultural products will require close monitoring for many years.

At the moment, sampling data collected by the various prefectural governments indicate that no vegetables, except for those grown in Fukushima Prefecture, have been found to contain more than the government's provisional limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram since June. Likewise, as of Sept. 7, samples of pork, chicken, milk and fruit had also tested within the provisional radiation limit, apart from Fukushima products and tea from Chiba, Kanagawa, Gunma, Tochigi, Saitama and Ibaraki prefectures.

In fact, the amount of radioactive materials in most of the food sampled has been steadily declining over the past few months, except for produce from Fukushima. "The results of Fukushima's sampling tests show the amountof radioactive material contained in vegetables has dropped sharply in recent months, including those grown in areas with high radiation levels," Noguchi said. "People shouldn't worry about it much (for the time being)," he said. "But mushrooms and other vegetables grown in contaminated forests are likely tocontain high levels of radioactive materials."

his year, it's very important to conduct thorough surveys. The contamination will continue for a long time, so data collection is essential," Muramatsu said. "We need to be prepared for the following years by recording data this year and studying the rate at which cesium in the soil is absorbed by each kind of produce," Muramatsu said. In the meantime, the radioactivity itself will continue to weaken over the years. Cesium-134 has a half-life of 2 years and cesium-137 a half-life of 30 years, meaning the radiation they emit will drop by half in 2 years and 30 years.

"Data from the Chernobyl disaster show that radioactive cesium in soil tends to become fixed more strongly to clay minerals as time passes. So agricultural contamination will lessen next year," he said. Muramatsu urged that special caution should be taken over products grown in soil rich in organic matter, such as in forested areas. "If the soil is rich in organic matter, it makes (cesium) more easily transferable to plants. . . . Forest soil is rich in organic matter, so people should be careful," he said.

Now that soil in a wide area of eastern Japan has been contaminated with cesium, experts are calling for close monitoring of soil and produce. The education ministry conducted soil surveys in June and July at 2,200 locations within 100 km of the crippled plant. At 34 locations in six municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture, including Minamisoma, Namie and Iitate, the data said cesium levels had exceeded 1.48 million becquerels per sq. meter — the same level that was used to define the exclusion zone around Chernobyl in 1986. Yasuyuki Muramatsu, a radiochemistry professor at Gakushuin University, said that agricultural contamination will likely peak this year because cesium binds more strongly with minerals in soil as time passes, making it more difficult to be absorbed by plant roots.

The ratio of cesium-134 to cesium-137 in the Fukushima accident is estimated as 1-to-1, while the ratio during the 1986 Chernobyl disaster was 1-to-2. This indicates the radiation in Fukushima will weaken at a faster rate than at Chernobyl. Between April and early August, the farm ministry tested soil at some 580 locations in six prefectures, including Fukushima, Tochigi and Gunma, to get a better picture of the full extent of contamination.

According to the results, 40 locations in Fukushima Prefecture had an intensity exceeding 5,000 becquerels per kilogram — the government's maximum limit for growing rice. Many municipalities within 30 km of the Fukushima No. 1 plant were banned from planting rice based on similar tests conducted in April. In addition, the ministry has asked 17 prefectures in eastern Japan to conduct two-phase radiation tests on harvested rice.

So far, none of the tests performed on unmilled rice — including from Fukushima — exceeded the government's limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram. Masanori Nonaka, an agriculture professor at Niigata University who specializes in soil science, said rice grown in contaminated areas is likely to be tainted, but to what extent is anyone's guess. White rice, however, may prove to be safe, Nonaka said. Because most of the radioactive material will adhere to the bran — the part of the husk left behind after hulling — about 60 percent of the cesium can be removed just by polishing it, he explained. Other foods, such as marine produce, won't be as easy to handle, experts say. After the Chernobyl accident, for example, the radioactive contamination of fish peaked between 6 to 12 months after the disaster. The Fisheries Agency, meanwhile, has asked nine prefectures on the Pacific coast to increase their sampling rates to prevent contaminated fish from landing in supermarkets.