Tag Archives: food

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Still no decontamination efforts in Fukushima!

Just days after the the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunamis, several Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors went critical, melted down, and some even exploded.  But to date (11 December 2011) no decontamination efforts have been carried out by the prefectural or national governments!

A couple of cities, and even neighborhood committees have attempted decontamination of their immediate surroundings, but nothing on the large scale that’s needed.  This is because no one in higher authority thought such a nuclear disaster would ever happen.

Testimony by many Japanese officials (and Tokyo Electric Power Company officials) say representatives from General Electric (and other U.S. nuclear power companies), and the U.S. government, had claimed the U.S. designed disaster reactors were the safest in the world.  Japanese officials thought there was no justification for such preparations as the U.S. designed nuke plants were so safe.

As a result of the March nuclear disaster (which is still ongoing) officials in the national and prefectural governments have been scrambling to learn everything they can about how to deal with the situation (that included a trip to Chernobyl, albeit very late in the game).

But learning everything they could in a short time wasn’t enough.  The Japanese national government had to pass a law ordering the large scale decontamination!

The Japanese Environment Ministry says they will begin decontamination of roads and other infrastructure in late January 2012.  They do not expect to be able to start decontaminating residences until March 2012!  And that’s for areas contaminated with less than 20 millisieverts of radiation. Japanese officials admit they still don’t know how to deal with areas contaminated with more than 20 millisieverts of radiation!

The Environment Ministry says they are conducting new studies to see how best to handle decontamination in areas with more than 20 millisieverts of radiation, with a focus on protecting the workers.

Fukushima, International

Japan Modern Day Atlantis round 4: Minamisanriku, hometown of Heroine Miki Endo is becoming the Atlantis I predicted

Video

On March 11, a massive tsunami hit Minamisanriku.  If it wasn’t for a young woman, Miki Endo, as well as her boss ordering the residents to escape, many thousands more would have been killed.

Endo and her boss did not survive. They stayed at their posts on the second floor of the town hall building.  The water reached the top of the third floor of the building.  Endo’s last words over the city’s loudspeaker system were: “Take care mom!”

On November 7, Independent Television News updated the situation of Minamisanriku, and it looks like my past posts, comparing it to a modern day Atlantis, might apply.  A city official says no rebuilding can take place, because the land is slowing sinking into the ocean: “…our plan is to move the entire town to higher ground, because the ground level here has dropped by 70 cm [27.5 inches]. When we get higher tides, they come in and this entire area is underwater.”-Jin Sato, Mayor

Who said southern California can’t drop off into the ocean?

ATLANTIS SYNDROME: OFFICIALS CONFIRM LAND SUNK AFTER 9.0 QUAKE

JAPAN MODERN DAY ATLANTIS ROUND 3: QUAKE UPGRADED 10,000+ DEAD

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government, Corporate & Farmer Incompetence: MF Global scandal will destroy U.S. Agriculture! “Christmas is canceled.” Is it all about creating the Great Global Food Crisis?

“I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date.”-Jon Corzine, former CEO of MF Global

On December 8, all those investors got their answer from the former boss of investment company MF Global.  Jon Corzine told the House Agriculture Committee that he doesn’t know what happened to the billions of investment dollars from clients, that include single moms and a lot of the country’s farmers.

“I can’t start my business at all because I have absolutely no capital…my twins’ birthday is December 9th, we can’t have a party now, Christmas is canceled.”-Jennifer DaRuzza, invested with MF Global in the hopes of raising enough money to start a business

The bigger concern is the fact that so many U.S. farmers were using investments with MF Global to fund their operations.  Historically farmers do not make enough money to “pay as you go”, they must deficit spend.

Senator Pat Roberts, who leads the Senate Agriculture Committee, told PBS’s Nightly Business Report that the MF Global scandal is bringing U.S. agriculture to a screeching halt: “…think of the farmer that was driving back to Kansas from Colorado, heard about this on the news, all of a sudden found out $30,000 of his assets were frozen. He was getting prepared to buy seed, fertilizer, was talking to a local realtor in regards to some land he might want to purchase or rent, that just stops it like that!”

Roberts also gave a dire warning for the country’s food supply in 2012: “…gonna have an impact on crops. This is gonna have an impact on our food prices. It is pretty broad across all the farm country and I’m hearing more about this than I am with what’s gonna happen in the farm bill!”

Try this:  Incompetent and greedy Corporate America just shot the United States in the Bread Basket!  Remember the Dust Bowl and Okies of the 1930s?  This time, instead of Mother Earth destroying U.S. agriculture it’s the hand of our divinely inspired leaders!

The destruction of the 1930s agriculture industry, in the bread basket of the U.S. (Midwest), is talked about as only one aspect of the Great Depression of the United States, but it should be discussed much more because people gotta eat!

(here’s a link to an interesting timeline of the Great Depression, where you should notice some ominous similarities between what happened then and what’s happening now)

It’s such a concern that United Nations officials have been warning of a coming Global Food Crisis for the past several years.  In 2008 UN officials called it “a silent tsunami” that was about to wash over the world.   This year the UN is stepping up preparations for long term famine relief (sinisterly involving the World Trade Organization): “My High Level Task Force is working to ensure that the UN system, international financial institutions and the WTO are ready to provide robust and consistent support to countries struggling to cope with food insecurity. This is a long term effort and it will require a comprehensive push to back solid partnerships, strong strategies and well financed actions that empower communities to become food secure.”-Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General

The strange thing about Ban Ki-moon’s statement; notice the emphasis is on “financed actions”.  What happened to growing food?  This is even more reason for individuals to try and grow their own, remember Victory Gardens? We’re at war people, and it’s not one country against another, as our 1% Elitist leaders claim, it’s the We the 99% against the 1%!

Here’s another scary part concerning the UN preparations, I don’t think the UN had taken into account the possibility that the Japanese would destroy their agriculture with radiation, or that the U.S. agriculture industry would be done in by their own financial system!  If the UN was predicting, back in 2008, that more than 100 million people are going to be starving to death, what about now?

Conspiracy theorists blame the coming Global Food Crisis on the Trilateral Commission, the Club of Rome, UN Article 21, and more.  Why?  Because all these organizations and proclamations are about one thing: Destroying existing systems for the purpose creating an all powerful one world government.

Oh, don’t worry, there will still be national and local governments, but they’ll answer to one single world government.  As the Russian Foreign Ministry recently said, regarding the formation of CELAC, it’s all part of “…the formation of a polycentric world and the strengthening of the role of regions in the system of global governance…”

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government & Farmer Incompetence: Apples and Rice poisoned by farm chemicals, FDA tries to blow it off! EPA has known since before 2007! Just more reasons for the coming global food crisis!

I’ve already criticized the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its handling of radiation contamination, now there’s evidence they’re ignoring arsenic poisoning of apples, rice, and other food due to farm chemicals.

In one study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S. women who ate half a cup of cooked rice, ingested an amount of poisonous arsenic equivalent to drinking four and a quarter cups of water with the maximum allowable level of arsenic.

“The large and statistically significant association we observed between rice consumption and urinary arsenic, in addition to earlier reports of elevated arsenic concentrations in rice, highlights the need to regulate arsenic in food.”

But that’s not all.  Consumer Reports, and the TV show Dr. Oz, discovers that apple juice is also contaminated with arsenic.  Several brands of apple and grape juice were found to have arsenic levels exceeding Federal safe limits (max 10 parts per billion).

“Roughly 10% of our juice samples, from five brands, had total arsenic levels that exceeded federal drinking-water standards. Most of that arsenic was inorganic arsenic, a known carcinogen.”– Consumer Reports

Notice “inorganic arsenic”, that means it’s not naturally occurring arsenic in the soil, it’s coming from the chemicals used on farms!

Consumer Reports also added that other foods are contaminated with chemical arsenic, and that lead has been found in juices as well.

Dr. Oz questioned the FDA and they gave him the amazing response that most food born arsenic is “essentially harmless”!  He was also amazed to find out that the FDA has no criteria regarding lead in apple juice!

Inorganic (chemical) arsenic is absorbed by plant roots.  Inorganic arsenic gets into the soil because it’s part of the ingredients in the chemicals farmers use.  Over the decades those chemicals, including arsenic, has been building up in the farm soil, now it’s finally showing up in high levels in our food!

Researchers in Scotland found that most arsenic contamination can be found in U.S. states that used to grow cotton. Chemicals used on cotton plants had high levels of arsenic.  They also found that rice grown in those states had much higher levels of arsenic, than rice grown in California.

Andrew Meharg, of the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, has been warning since before 2007 about arsenic contamination in rice!  He says it’s not just the U.S. and European rice crops, but rice grown in Asia (now you can add the radiation from Japan).

In fact, Meharg said the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) conducted a study and were concerned with the results: “…the risk assessment has been done for the U.S.A. by the U.S. EPA and they’ve actually found that there is a risk for the U.S. based population and that’s why the U.S. levels in water were reduced, because the risk from arsenic to the U.S. population was more perceptible, and above background, particularly for lung and bladder cancers and what we’re finding is that the levels of arsenic in rice for certain subpopulations exceed those current levels for safety and water. And eating high levels of rice, they’re actually well over what they should be consuming.”-from March, 2007 interview

Meharg said rice with the lowest levels of arsenic, according to his research, comes from India.

Don’t everybody rush for the ‘organically’ grown food, there just isn’t enough for all of us, just more reason there’s a coming global food crisis.  Grow your own!

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Texas mom shoots kids then self after being denied food stamps, part of increasing trend in Texas due to bad economy

On December 6, a Texas mom shot her two kids, and then herself inside a Laredo social services office, after being denied food stamps.  She had been applying since July!

Officials say she didn’t provide enough documentation!  Her two kids, a 10-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, are in critical condition, she’s dead.  The woman had moved to Texas after losing her job in Ohio. This is not the first shooting in Texas related to the bad economy.

On November 30, in Bay City, Texas, an illegal immigrant shot the mother of his children, and then killed all four children, in front of neighbors.  One neighbor said the man had just lost his job at a local grocery store: “He worked nights and all of a sudden he was having trouble with his family. I knew the guy, but I didn’t know he would do something like this.”-Juan Elizondo, daughter witnessed the shootings

The shooter had been deported before, and there’s speculation that fear of being deported again could have played apart: “She was scared she didn’t have papers, that he didn’t have papers. They were both scared that they were going to get deported.”-Juan Elizondo

 

 

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Powdered milk contaminated with radiation!

Japanese powdered milk maker Meiji says they will replace 400,000 cans of their product, after it was found contaminated with cesium.

The levels are below safe limits but the company says it’s better to be safe than sorry.  The powdered milk was produced from March 14 to 20. The base powder used was made before 11 March 2011.

Meiji did not voluntarily test their product, nor was it government officials, it was a consumer group who forced the testing.  Meiji officials are now trying to figure out how their product got contaminated.  The company has factories all over Japan, from Hokkaido down to Tokyo.  This is another indication how much the radiation from Fukushima Daiichi has spread.

Fukushima

Government & Farmer Incompetence: More raidation in new rice crops in Japan, the list keeps growing!

Continuing inspections of rice crops are revealing how pervasive the radiation contamination is.  Three more farms have been found to be contaminated above safe limits.

The result is that the national government, on 05 December 2011, banned rice shipments from 406 farms.  The farms are located in several districts within the cities of Fukushima and Date, in Fukushima Prefecture.

The latest rice farms to make the list are 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant.

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Russia warning the world; Japanese products contaminated with radiation. Why isn’t the U.S. EPA or FDA protecting us?

On 01 December 2011, Russian port authorities in Vladivostok stopped a shipment of tires from Japan. They say the tires are emitting beta and gamma rays.

This is not the first time Russian inspectors found radioactive products from Japan.  In April, 49 second hand (used) cars shipped from Japan were found to be emitting radiation six times the safe limit.  A similar incident happened in June.  Eastern Russia is a big market for used Japanese cars.

What about radiation testing in the U.S.?  The latest statement from the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) claims to have conducted “…28,190 field examinations for radionuclide contamination.”  However, they only talk about 1186 samples (out of the 28,190 tests) being safe.  The data for the rest of their test is in a format my computer couldn’t open.

The FDA website has some statements that are pure bogusnus.  Example: “Little or no harvesting of fish is taking place in the area around the reactor.”  This is false! Fisherman in the Fukushima area have been fishing, including around the Daiichi power plant, it’s their only source of income!  In fact the latest revelation, that strontium 90 is pouring into the ocean, has the local fishermens’ co-op threatening to sue Tokyo Electric.

Another example from the FDA: “The volume of water between particles and fish absorbs radiation, “shielding” the fish.”  Bull Shit!  Why have so many fish in Japanese markets turned up highly contaminated with radiation?  Why are Fukushima fishermen so pissed off!?

The FDA tries a Red Herring argument by saying: “The half life of I-131 is about eight days.”  They’re talking about cesium 131, they’re trying to make you feel safe.  Hello, what about the strontium 90, the plutonium, and other isotopes that last virtually freakin’ forever!

They do mention cesium 137 (half life of 30 years), but here’s another amazing statement the FDA makes: “…the radionuclides also undergo biological excretion and do not continue to build up in fish…”  Bull shit again!  When I was a Cold War soldier, the U.S. Army had us doing yearly training for NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) warfare.  One of the things we were taught is that radiation contamination freakin’ builds up over time!  The longer you’re exposed the more F–ked up you get, because it builds up!  You see when you work around radiative shit, you have to monitor not only the intensity of the radiation, but how long you’re exposed to it.

Finally the FDA passes the buck onto Customs and Border Protection saying they screen the cargo containers coming from Japan.  The FDA also says their own people walk around the docks using hand held radiometers, and if they detect high “background” radiation levels then they do more intensive inspections. The problem is that just because the contents of the shipping container are radioactive does not means the thick steel container will emit radiation!  The Russian inspectors at Vladivostok must be doing a better job at inspections than our people.

The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is making things more confusing , because they’ve been revising their “methodologies” and policies (isn’t that convenient).   They don’t inspect products, but are supposed to be testing air and water.  I’ve written about how many of the RadNet sites were not even working during the first few months of the nuclear crisis in Japan.

The EPA has changed how they report their RadNet data.  In Idaho there’s only one RadNet site, in Idaho Falls.  Their gamma counts show a lot of spikes, but it’s not clear if it’s because of Fukushima or not.  On the old RadNet web page there was a detection of cesium 131 (short half life) in precipitation readings on 01 April 2011.  However, the new RadNet sites are even more confusing, there is no way the general public can make use of them, what a waste of taxpayer money!

Fend for yourself!

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: After months of expelling radiation into the environment, Fukushima Daiichi officially in Cold Shut Down

Tokyo Electric Power Company officials say that on 16 December 2011 (the day the U.S. Postal Service will be in official default) they will declare the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Cold Shut Down mode.

The Cold Shut Down could be officially announced by Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko.

Of course this is after they let millions and millions of becquerels of radiation pour out into the air and water, along with the radioactive remains of the melted fuel rods!

Cold Shut Down means that the water being used to flush out, I mean, ‘cool down’ the reactors remains below boiling point, which is an indication that most of the fuel rods are used up.

There must be so little left inside the reactors that the temps have come down. I guess that’s one way to do it, I personally like the way the Soviets handled Chernobyl: Sand, lead and concrete.

Fukushima

Global Food Crisis: Fukushima needs help inspecting more than 24,000 rice farms, too much radiation, logistical nightmare!

The Prefectural government of Fukushima (where the spewing Fukushima Daiichi GE designed disaster reactors are) is asking the Japanese government for logistical help.

Fukushima officials said they want to test one third of their rice farms/crops for radiation contamination, after several rice crops came up highly radioactive. Here’s the logistical problem: One third of Fukushima rice farms/harvests amount to 24,000 crops!

Fukushima Prefecture asked the national government to provide devices to measure radiation, dispatch personnel to expedite inspections, and shoulder the cost.