Is locally grown food - or any food - safe from Fukushima fallout?
Today in front of Whole Foods I saw young children eating store-bought food and wondered if the food was safe for them to eat. I'm not prone to alarmism, but there are some reputable people trying to alert us to the danger. The government's attitude is to encourage us to keep our heads buried in the sand, but ignorance at this time could be very unhealthy - for us and future generations. We are not powerless to find out the truth, and we are not powerless to do something about it if the danger is real.
Serious concerns are being raised about the effects of radioactive fallout from Fukushima on farm and garden soils. The west coast is apparently one of the places subject to this fallout. See this video by renowned Nobel price-winning author Helen Caldicott.
(I recommend not watching it until you feel able to hear some very dire predictions about the effects of Fukushima-generated radioactivity.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ITrXVJMKeQ
Also see this .pdf file.
For political and economic reasons, it appears the government is showing little interest in real testing or is not publicizing the results. Their stance seems to be the nuclear industry's old familiar theme song: "No cause for alarm." My sense is that we have an urgent need to know the truth so we can act positively to meet our needs with some level of safety. We can start by doing our own testing to determine if further action is required to protect the food supply.
A local group of food growers - and eaters - can form a food safety co-op-network, buy the needed equipment (Geiger counter at least) and begin testing local food growing soils. Testing would be just the beginning if we find dangerously high levels of contamination. Then we can explore options such as soil remediation and growing in greenhouses (I gather most fallout comes down in rain and snow so the growing media may need to be protected from exposure at least during the rainy season).
What do you think of this proposal? Are you interested in being part of a cooperative network that will buy equipment and pay someone to do the testing?
Clint Summer
"What we need is not the will to believe but the will to find out." -- Bertrand Russell
Re: Is locally grown food - or any food - safe from Fukushima fallout?
Hi Clint,
I am part of a small local group called FukushimaResponse, and we are about to buy a detector and start monitoring, among other projects. We have a radiation monitoring mentor as well, a physics professor. Here is an information sheet we are making available online:
fukushimaresponse.com (needs updating but the infomation is valid- and depressing)
I'd like to talk to you if you're up for it. I live on W.Sexton, phone number 393-1192, and I hope to speak to you soon.
best wishes, hope to hear from you- Mark Davis [email protected]
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by CSummer:
Today in front of Whole Foods I saw young children eating store-bought food and wondered if the food was safe for them to eat. I'm not prone to alarmism, but there are some reputable people trying to alert us to the danger. The government's attitude is to encourage us to keep our heads buried in the sand, but ignorance at this time could be very unhealthy - for us and future generations. We are not powerless to find out the truth, and we are not powerless to do something about it if the danger is real.
Serious concerns are being raised about the effects of radioactive fallout from Fukushima on farm and garden soils. The west coast is apparently one of the places subject to this fallout. See this video by renowned Nobel price-winning author Helen Caldicott.
(I recommend not watching it until you feel able to hear some very dire predictions about the effects of Fukushima-generated radioactivity.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ITrXVJMKeQ
Also see
this .pdf file.
For political and economic reasons, it appears the government is showing little interest in real testing or is not publicizing the results. Their stance seems to be the nuclear industry's old familiar theme song: "No cause for alarm." My sense is that we have an urgent need to know the truth so we can act positively to meet our needs with some level of safety. We can start by doing our own testing to determine if further action is required to protect the food supply.
A local group of food growers - and eaters - can form a food safety co-op-network, buy the needed equipment (Geiger counter at least) and begin testing local food growing soils. Testing would be just the beginning if we find dangerously high levels of contamination. Then we can explore options such as soil remediation and growing in greenhouses (I gather most fallout comes down in rain and snow so the growing media may need to be protected from exposure at least during the rainy season).
What do you think of this proposal? Are you interested in being part of a cooperative network that will buy equipment and pay someone to do the testing?
Clint Summer
"What we need is not the will to believe but the will to find out." -- Bertrand Russell
Re: Is locally grown food - or any food - safe from Fukushima fallout?
The solution would be to grow food in a greenhouse or sunny window, using reverse osmosis water. Here is a link to an easy, compact system for growing your own fruits, vegetables and herbs:
cleanfood.towergarden.com :heart:
Re: Is locally grown food - or any food - safe from Fukushima fallout?
For over 50 years my family worked on this sandy ancient stream bed soil. We had beautiful gardens with every thing you can imagine until the vineyards stripped our water supply. Now that I have had to put a new well in, 145 feet instead of the 50 foot artesian well that struggled along with us, barely enough water to support a tiny garden at the end of its honorable life, I hope to get some kind of garden in again. At least enough to support myself and perhaps I can remember/learn to use all the canning and dehydrating supplies my mother left to me. I would want to find a source of non-hybrid or genetically altered seeds but I don't know how possible that is anymore. and i would be interested in knowing how safe my soil is now.
off subject as always... i was reading the other day and it was talking about the danger of taking away all the underground water in earthquake zones. that there is great danger of the ground sinking into the holes left . anyone know anything about that subject locally?
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by bokken:
Hi Clint,
I am part of a small local group called FukushimaResponse, and we are about to buy a detector and start monitoring, among other projects. We have a radiation monitoring mentor as well, a physics professor. Here is an information sheet we are making available online:
fukushimaresponse.com (needs updating but the infomation is valid- and depressing)
I'd like to talk to you if you're up for it. I live on W.Sexton, phone number 393-1192, and I hope to speak to you soon.
best wishes, hope to hear from you- Mark Davis
[email protected]
Re: Is locally grown food - or any food - safe from Fukushima fallout?
Good to read the 9 chapter website nuclearreader.info to arm ourselves with information as the US has approved the building of the first nuclear power plant since 1978. Also an excellent and important read is the new book by Sara Shannon -- Radiation Protective Foods which I got at Amazon.
Re: Is locally grown food - or any food - safe from Fukushima fallout?
If you'd like to find out what's really going on with Fukushima have a look around www.enenews.com (stands for Energy News) and subscribe to their once a day list of headlines. You'll get the picture within a week.
Also the commenters often offer helpful information. Here is a sample:
Spectrometising
March 16, 2012 at 10:54 am Log in to Reply
Really annoying to see geiger pushers, pushing giegers. nO WHERE NEAR AS SENSITIVE AS SCINTILLATION DETECTORS.
A gamma scintillator and a pancake detector are the best in my opinion.
Get one of these for 250$
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/GS-1100A...item27bbcc744a
(Read the fine print….This is the basis for adding a family of detectors instead of being tied like a buffalo to post with a brand name product that will not work with any other detector and on and on…..Buying a brand name is a sure way to end up with a noose around the neck with no means of upgrading without buying an entirely new system.)
Then get either a Geiger detector stand alone and plug into the item above. Or a professional pancake style alpha, beta gamma detector.
Here is the free software that will even allow someone to do isotope analysis.
https://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~marek/pra/index.html
This means the cost of a system that will do full gamma spectrometry is under 1000$
DO NOT WASTE MONEY AND RESOURCES LOCKING YOURSELF INTO A BRAND NAME.
Also, to do food testing some Lead sheild is a huge advantage …
That's my two bobs worth…
Or go to facebook and see what we are doing there at facebook page "Gamma Spectacular"
Or here..https://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/...erEnthusiasts/
Or here
https://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/GammaSpectrometry/
Report Comment
Re: Is locally grown food - or any food - safe from Fukushima fallout?
OHHH...CAPS OFF... it kinda cracks me up in a weird sort of way that here we are pondering the safety of our food, now and in the future while other places are having existential conversations that are... well...existential. gosh i guess everything sucks right now.. fear of my own country.. fear of other countries... but I have to dial the fear back a few notches and hope to be moving on. I got behind getting this property ready to accept a food garden because I let other things get in the way and because getting this house in order has been such a huge project for me. What do with everything and what to do with my own stuff. oh yeah and the well broke and by the time I got a new one it was pretty much passed rototilling and into high weed mowing. but I want a garden next year and yes I guess i would have to be interested in its safety...
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by nirakenna:
Good to read the 9 chapter website nuclearreader.info to arm ourselves with information as the US has approved the building of the first nuclear power plant since 1978. Also an excellent and important read is the new book by Sara Shannon -- Radiation Protective Foods which I got at Amazon.
Re: Is locally grown food - or any food - safe from Fukushima fallout?
There is a Sebastopol business that makes a low cost detection device.
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by ubaru:
If you'd like to find out what's really going on with Fukushima have a look around
www.enenews.com (stands for Energy News) and subscribe to their once a day list of headlines. You'll get the picture within a week.
Also the commenters often offer helpful information. Here is a sample:
Spectrometising
March 16, 2012 at 10:54 am Log in to Reply
Really annoying to see geiger pushers, pushing giegers. nO WHERE NEAR AS SENSITIVE AS SCINTILLATION DETECTORS.
A gamma scintillator and a pancake detector are the best in my opinion.
Get one of these for 250$
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/GS-1100A...item27bbcc744a
(Read the fine print….This is the basis for adding a family of detectors instead of being tied like a buffalo to post with a brand name product that will not work with any other detector and on and on…..Buying a brand name is a sure way to end up with a noose around the neck with no means of upgrading without buying an entirely new system.)
Then get either a Geiger detector stand alone and plug into the item above. Or a professional pancake style alpha, beta gamma detector.
Here is the free software that will even allow someone to do isotope analysis.
https://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~marek/pra/index.html
This means the cost of a system that will do full gamma spectrometry is under 1000$
DO NOT WASTE MONEY AND RESOURCES LOCKING YOURSELF INTO A BRAND NAME.
Also, to do food testing some Lead sheild is a huge advantage …
That's my two bobs worth…
Or go to facebook and see what we are doing there at facebook page "Gamma Spectacular"
Or here..https://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/...erEnthusiasts/
Or here
https://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/GammaSpectrometry/
Report Comment
Re: Is locally grown food - or any food - safe from Fukushima fallout?
https://endthelie.com/2012/06/02/byo...#axzz1xygn0OUW
BYOG: Bring Your Own Geiger counter and Hazmat gear
By Christina Consolo
Contributing writer for End the Lie and host of Nuked Radio
https://EndtheLie.com/wp-content/upl...re-300x200.jpg
It has been 6 weeks since I wrote my first piece for End the Lie about the potential Fukushima reactor number four end of the world scenario. Numerous nuclear experts, ambassadors, former Fukushima Daiichi workers, and senator Ron Wyden of Oregon have warned about as well. And still, no progress to report.
If TEPCO looked at what we learned from the example of Chernobyl, they should have had hundreds if not thousands of workers fortifying the structure and removing the spent fuel 24/7 for the past 14 months. But no, there does not seem to be any sense of urgency whatsoever.
https://EndtheLie.com/wp-content/upl...as-300x204.jpg
Editor’s note: as I previously reported, TEPCO will not even start moving the spent fuel rods from this endangered pool into a joint pool for all six reactors next to the crumbling reactor four building until late next year. I would love to know why exactly this is the case but unfortunately I have yet to receive any explanation whatsoever.
https://EndtheLie.com/wp-content/upl...63-300x217.png
Even the UN received an urgent request to enact international help from numerous nuke experts, since the demise of reactor four would have global effects. But still, nothing.
It has been difficult, if not nearly impossible, to get people to realize the extent of Fukushima and its effect on our lives. Part of that reason is because radiation is invisible. Another reason is because the media isn’t talking about it.
More at EndtheLie.com - https://EndtheLie.com/2012/06/02/byo...#ixzz1y4YokGGl
Re: Is locally grown food - or any food - safe from Fukushima fallout?
When I first saw the scene in Mad Max; where someone tries to sell him water, and he takes out the portable Geiger counter to check it out first; then rejects it when it sets off the device; I knew I had to have one.
Just wish I had the extra $200. Would love to have a good lead detection one as well before making purchases.
:atom:
Re: Is locally grown food - or any food - safe from Fukushima fallout?
The Sonoma County Water Coalition and SWiG, (Sebastopol Water Information Group) can address the impacts on ground subsidence from over-drafting our groundwater. I suggest joining their yahoogroup, and attending the meetings, or e mailing Jane Nielson from SWiG; or Donna Gallagher or Stephen Fuller Rowell (SP?) from SCWC.
https://www.scwatercoalition.org/
The over-permitting of wine grapes here, has far more impacts to everyone's habitat than can be properly mitigated by the industry or water & sewer agencies.
How many gallons of water per year are exported, one case of wine at a time?
What will we do when the groundwater is not sufficiently recharged by these practices; which only bring short term returns for the investors?
5th District dwellers; I wish you had asked this of Efren Carillo before you gave him your vote. Please call him on this now.
Without a proper groundwater study and management plan; NO major water extraction should be done; not for ag, housing, industry, or casinos.
The big municipal and private water agencies have all the money and lawyers they need to continue to draw down the water table. Private well owners are screwed, unless they team up and take on the rape of our natural resources; BEFORE it gets worse.
Let the Dept of the Interior hear from you ASAP; before the ink dries on the RP casino. The plot they plan to develop; is where most of our region's underground water drains.
Beyond just depleting the quality and quantity of your well; your structures are at risk when the earth compacts from the draining of your aquifer.
The County & cities here, Wall Street, and Cal PERS investors, only care about their investments paying off, not the price we pay for the impacts of their water extraction biz.
:fishy:
Losing our natural, native endangered fish, is only one of the dire consequences; the rest cannot be engineered around.
:waccosun: It's important for private well owners to unite and take action ASAP. I have ideas; just need the resources to jump start them.
Colleen Fernald
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Garnette:
For over 50 years my family worked on this sandy ancient stream bed soil. We had beautiful gardens with every thing you can imagine until the vineyards stripped our water supply. Now that I have had to put a new well in, 145 feet instead of the 50 foot artesian well that struggled along with us, barely enough water to support a tiny garden at the end of its honorable life, I hope to get some kind of garden in again. At least enough to support myself and perhaps I can remember/learn to use all the canning and dehydrating supplies my mother left to me. I would want to find a source of non-hybrid or genetically altered seeds but I don't know how possible that is anymore. and i would be interested in knowing how safe my soil is now.
off subject as always... i was reading the other day and it was talking about the danger of taking away all the underground water in earthquake zones. that there is great danger of the ground sinking into the holes left . anyone know anything about that subject locally?
Re: Is locally grown food - or any food - safe from Fukushima fallout?
I think you maybe mistaking "fear" by some here; for being well informed, and aiming to take precautions, as well as, reverse the forces putting us in jeopardy.
You can't be prepared if you are closed minded, or ignore the risks; if one is shut down by fear or prejudice.
The sky IS falling. I want the public to be informed, not lied to, about just WHAT is falling; so we can get busy making a radioactive, or other elements of concern, resistant umbrellas. :wink:
:sunshine: Hard to develop resiliency with your head in the sand; and likely to get a toxic sunburn without knowing what kind of safe protection works best.
Colleen
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Garnette:
OHHH...CAPS OFF... it kinda cracks me up in a weird sort of way that here we are pondering the safety of our food, now and in the future while other places are having existential conversations that are... well...existential. gosh i guess everything sucks right now.. fear of my own country.. fear of other countries... but I have to dial the fear back a few notches and hope to be moving on. I got behind getting this property ready to accept a food garden because I let other things get in the way and because getting this house in order has been such a huge project for me. What do with everything and what to do with my own stuff. oh yeah and the well broke and by the time I got a new one it was pretty much passed rototilling and into high weed mowing. but I want a garden next year and yes I guess i would have to be interested in its safety...
Re: Is locally grown food - or any food - safe from Fukushima fallout?
Go to www.nuclearreader.info to learn all you need to know about radiation. A must read, especially in the wake of Fukushima. Also, there is an excellent book called Radiation Protective Foods by Sara Shannon. I got mine at Amazon.com. This is the most critical threat to health and armed with information is the only way we will be able to stop the insanity. Nuclear power is an absurd way to boil water.
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Peace Voyager:
I think you maybe mistaking "fear" by some here; for being well informed, and aiming to take precautions, as well as, reverse the forces putting us in jeopardy.
You can't be prepared if you are closed minded, or ignore the risks; if one is shut down by fear or prejudice.
The sky IS falling. I want the public to be informed, not lied to, about just WHAT is falling; so we can get busy making a radioactive, or other elements of concern, resistant umbrellas. :wink:
:sunshine: Hard to develop resiliency with your head in the sand; and likely to get a toxic sunburn without knowing what kind of safe protection works best.
Colleen
Re: Is locally grown food - or any food - safe from Fukushima fallout?
"can we really make radioactive resistant umbrellas? ;" :rain:
Responding to this private response:
That was a metaphor, hence the winking smiley face. Although I throw ideas like that out there with the hope that some enterprising Waccos will engage in their development. :idea:
Anyone want to kickstart the Sebastopol Tin Hat Company? Even if some inventions don't work; we could still potentially produce a profit as a novelty item biz; while teaching kids about science, and how to vet authentic science vs claimed science. ; )
:fairy duster:
This town could use some humorous & serious notoriety taking a stand on our neglected West County values. No longer the city with the Green Party majority; now just a bunch of vanilla Democrats - too loyal to a spineless party; too fearful to take a stand on ending unconstitutional war, or addressing weather modification, over amp'ed cel towers, etc.
I think mushrooms can be used to decontaminate radioactive soil to some degree. Because of this, you don't want to eat them if they've been grown near any contamination.
It would be smart to allocate some of the Farm Bill budget to finding out which plants repel radiation; which foods enhance our bodies' recovery from radiation exposure, and other plants & microbes, etc. which neutralize, or decrease radioactivity in water and soil; and which supplements for the soil, humans, and animals will decrease the harm from radioactive fallout.
:dcngbrocli:
Re: Is locally grown food - or any food - safe from Fukushima fallout?
California prunes and almonds have detectable levels of cesium-134 — A fingerprint for radiation from Fukushima Daiichi
https://enenews.com/cesium-134-detected-in-california-prunes-and-almonds-a-fingerprint-for-radiation-from-fukushima-daiichi
Meet others who are interested in mobilizing international forces to respond effectively to the very unstable spent fuel pool reactor 4 at the Wednesday 7pm July 18th showing of the film Fukushima No More at the Sebastopol Grange.
https://fukushimaresponse.org/events-calendar.php
Meet anti-nuclear activist Ms. Chieko Shiina of Fukushima Women Against Nuclear Power. She is an organic farmer from Kawamata town Fukushima, the founder of Fukushima Women Against Nuclear Power, who organizes “Women’s 10 months and 10 days sit-in” in front of the Ministry of Economy and Industry, which is also known as Occupy Tokyo/ Kasumigaseki. Read more about her west coast tour here: https://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/...a_chieko_tour/
It's time to collaborate and problem solve.
