The Japanese government established radiation contamination guidelines for determining whether fertilizers, and livestock feed, contaminated with radiation are safe to use, or not.

The new safe limit for contaminated fertilizer is 400 becquerels of cesium per kilogram.  Farmers are asked to use humus and compost that contains less than that.

The new standard for fertilizer comes after it’s become clear that many crops around Honshu are contaminated, internally, with radiation.  Many of those crops are fed to cows, which in turn become internally contaminated.

Also, the government established, for the first time, safe limits on cattle and fish feed.  300 becquerels of cesium per kilogram in cattle feed is the max, and 100 becquerels for fish feed.

Government officials say they will start explaining, by next week, how farmers can check for such levels.