Govt May Ask Farmers To Delay Rice Planting Amid Radiation Scare

[jpak]

http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110329D29JF371.htm

The agricultural ministry is considering asking farmers in Fukushima and some other prefectures to delay rice planting for a few weeks amid growing concerns about radiation leaks from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant crippled by the devastating earthquake and tsunami earlier this month, officials said.

The delay would give the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries time to examine whether rice paddies are too contaminated with radioactive substances to allow cultivation, the officials said.

The request would be made to farmers in Fukushima, where the nuclear plant is located, and other prefectures, such as Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma, where radiation levels above safety limits under the Food Sanitation Law were detected in spinach and other agricultural products.

The ministry will step up soil inspection of rice paddies to determine whether farmers can plant rice.

<more>

[Juneboarder]

1. The government MAY ask farmers...?

It really shouldn't even be a question, now should it? I mean you find Plutonium in the ground outside the reactors and now they're reading the radiation levels at sieverts rather than millisieverts, but the government isn't sure just yet...

P.U.K.E.

[AndyTiedye]

2. They Might Have to Delay Rice Planting for About 250,000 Years

[damntexdem]

3. Can Japan live without its north?

And if worst-case scenarios occur, can it live without Tokyo? Without Japan? Without the world?

[tularetom]

4. Believe it or not Japan is the largest importer of rice from the US