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Page added on December 11, 2013
Rice From Fukushima Was Served To Japanese Government Officials, And Then Something Odd Happened
Two days ago, supposedly in an attempt to demonstrate how “contained” the radiation fallout from Fukushima was, an event was held in Tokyo to demonstrate the safety of the rice grown in the vicinity of the evacuated area around the exploded nuclear power plant according to the source, NHK. And since officials from Fukushima Prefecture said “no radioactive materials were detected in any of the harvested rice” a whopping 540 kilograms of the non-radioactive rice would be served in a government office complex in Tokyo for 9 days from Monday. We further learned that Senior Vice Environment Minister Shinji Inoue and Parliamentary Vice Environment Minister Tomoko Ukishima tasted rice balls made of the crop on the first day. Inoue said the rice tasted good especially when he thought about the great effort that went into cultivating the crop. A farmer from Kawamata Town said he will continue to cultivate rice now that he knows that it’s possible to grow a tasty product if the paddy fields are properly decontaminated. He said he travelled from his temporary home to the paddy to tend the rice as it grew.
While we will avoid commenting on the “intelligence” behind this action, designed to demonstrate just how under control the Fukushima situation is (when even Tepco admitted it no longer is), especially since it takes years if not decades for radiation-induced illnesses to appear (although we do remind readers that the leader of the Fukushima explosion response team did die from Cancer in July, or just over two years after the disaster), we will note something curious.
A quick search for the original article on NHK, which we read when it came out, reveals a surprising finding: a 404 error.
This is ironic because a cached version of the same URL still exists, all the more so since the original story was picked up and syndicated by others include RT and Voice of Russia.
Which makes one wonder: is this the first instance of the government’s brand new “secrecy” bill being implemented, and if so, why, of all places, in a story which is nothing but propaganda to telegraph that all is well in Fukushima and whose downside is at most the well-being (and life) of two lowly government apparatchiks.
In the meantime, if the US is importing any rice from Japan, it may want to give it the good old Geiger Counter test or two.
8 Comments on "Rice From Fukushima Was Served To Japanese Government Officials, And Then Something Odd Happened"
BillT on Thu, 12th Dec 2013 12:51 am
As I said before, a hand held Geiger counter would make a good Christmas gift for the food shopper in your family.
GregT on Thu, 12th Dec 2013 1:18 am
“A farmer from Kawamata Town said he will continue to cultivate rice now that he knows that it’s possible to grow a tasty product”
Well thank the good lord, the rice is tasty. Nothing to worry about here people, come on, eat up!
DC on Thu, 12th Dec 2013 4:14 am
Glow-in-the dark Instant Rice. Ready in 5 mins. Cooks itself. And tasty yes. Serve it with some dolphin.
SilentRunning on Thu, 12th Dec 2013 6:47 am
Although I tend to be dismissive of many of the Fukushima radiation stories posted here, I would be concerned about eating food grown in the general area of Fukushima in Japan. Radiation “hot spots” should be expected for some time.
Norm on Thu, 12th Dec 2013 10:52 am
Who says it will set off your Geiger Counter? A lot of this stuff is blocked by a sheet of paper. The problem is, in your gut it isnt blocked by anything.
Almost nobody discusses ‘hot particles’. (a chunk of somebodys burning reactor core, fun for the whole family). Those ‘hot particles’ won’t register on your geiger counter, but you can breathe one and get cancer from it.
The government counts upon the fact that y’all are too stooopid to understand things like that. Duhhhhhhhhhhhhh !! Geiger counter not go off… so everything safe ! Duhhhhhhhhhhhh !!
Time to go to Olive Garden, find a plate the size of a garbage pail lid, put 3 gallons of spaghetti onto it. For dessert, couple of cigarettes and beer. Duhhhhhhhh !! Amerika, land of the fat and the stupid. Home of the lazy and the rude. I think that is how it is written into the national anthem.
BillT on Thu, 12th Dec 2013 11:31 am
Ah Norm, but you don’t know if it is safe or not and your government certainly won’t tell you. GE wants to sell more radioactive time bombs to the stupid and GE is one of your masters. But then, most Americans won’t survive the coming collapse anyway. Eat up!
Beery on Thu, 12th Dec 2013 12:45 pm
I hear spent fuel rods are delicious too. Strange how no corporation has marketed fuel rod stew yet. I guess it just shows a failure of imagination on their part.
Seriously though, I don’t care how much governments and corporations assure us that Pacific tuna and other seafood is delicious and safe, I’m not going near any of it until this disaster is at least 10 or 15 years behind us. As far as I’m concerned, Japan and the entire Pacific Ocean is an enormous irradiated toilet, and I’ll happily go on believing that until someone proves otherwise – and proof will take an awful lot more than some government patsy eating a bowl of rice or sushi. Maybe that sort of stupidity is convincing to Japanese Joe Sixpack, but it doesn’t wash here.
foxv on Thu, 12th Dec 2013 2:37 pm
Japan is legendary for noble and ritual suicide.
The first team to enter Fukushima knew they were committing suicide. What’s to say that two government officials, that have no chance of a job after the next election, aren’t doing the same?
First China, now Japan. My list of places I’ll never eat food from is growing. Actually I should just cross all of south east asia off the list now.