Farmers struggling to win trust

Fukushima products still face suspicion from consumers over radioactive threat

KORIYAMA, Japan — The pumpkin is diced, the chicken carved and the eggs beaten into an omelet, but the people preparing the food are not chefs — they are scientists testing produce from Japan’s Fukushima region.

Seven years after the March 2011 nuclear disaster caused by a devastating tsunami, rigorous testing shows no radioactive threat from Fukushima’s produce, officials and experts say.

But local producers say they still face crippling suspicion from consumers.

More than 205,000 food items have been tested at the Fukushima Agricultural Technology Centre since March 2011, with Japan setting a standard of no more than 100 becquerels of radioactivity per kilogram (or bq/kg).

The European Union, by comparison, sets that level at 1,250 bq/kg and the United States at 1,200.

In the last year, the center says no cultivated produce or farm-reared livestock has exceeded the government’s limit.

In all just nine samples out of tens of thousands were over the limit: eight from fish bred in inland ponds, and one a sample of wild mushrooms.

Each day, more than 150 samples are prepared, coded, weighed, and then passed through a “germanium semiconductor detector”. Rice undergoes screening elsewhere.

While radiation affected several regions which have their own testing processes, Fukushima’s program is the most systematic, testament to the particularly severe reputational damage it suffered.

In the wake of the nuclear disaster, a wide-scale decontamination program has been carried out in Fukushima.

It can’t be done in forests, where thick tree growth makes it impractical. But elsewhere topsoil has been removed, trees washed down and potassium sprinkled to reduce cesium uptake.

But the testing process is the cornerstone of efforts to win consumer trust.

“Some people are still worried, in Japan and abroad, so we want to continue to explain to people in other prefectures and in foreign countries that our products are safe,” said Kenji Kusano, an official at the testing center.

And occasionally radioactivity is detected, for example in wild plants and mushrooms, which are destroyed if they exceed the government standard.

The problem remains one of perception, despite the fact that independent testing confirms what government labs show.

The Minna no Data (Our Data) NGO carries out its own testing and spokesman Hidetake Ishimaru said the group was “very surprised” by the “mostly very low levels” it found in Fukushima produce.

International level

At the international level, there has been some progress: 27 countries of the 54 that imposed restrictions on food from Fukushima after 2011 have now lifted those bans.

And another 23 markets, including the US and EU, have relaxed restrictions, though some regional neighbors including China and South Korea have kept bans in place.

And experts say the government’s science-based approach has done little to convince people.

“Nobody believes, just by shouting safety,” said Katsumi Shozugawa, a University of Tokyo professor who has studied the situation in Fukushima.

He said government testing was appropriate, but attempts to convince consumers remained “poor”.

Tomiko Yamaguchi, sociology professor at Tokyo’s International Christian University, said some consumers were torn between fear over Fukushima produce and solidarity with residents there.

“People can’t talk about these things. It’s almost like a taboo,” she said.

“But regardless ... if you are very concerned for your children, it doesn’t matter if there’s scientific evidence or not.”