""Eating only a portion of the meat will not cause a great deal of damage to one's health," said Goshi Hosono, state minister in charge food safety." On average, he's correct. Of the trillions of cells in a human body, the cesium will only cause a small handful of cells to become cancerous. A very small percentage, so there is no need to worry.

This is how the unrestrained free market works. If a cow is radioactive, ship it (or the processed beef) to another part of the country or the world, to a place where the dummies don't ask questions. Profit! Also watch out for milk and ice cream from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Now why would I say a thing like that?

Utterly inexcusable. *THIS* is why TEPCO should be nationalized, or simply broken up into pieces small enough to be strangled to death. *THIS* is why governments should DO WHAT THEY'RE EMPOWERED AND REQUIRED to do and serve the interests of the PEOPLE by safeguarding them from all enemies foreign and domestic (i.e. corporations in the current paradigm of perceived "peace.)" You'd think Japan would have a better cultural memory of what "nuclear fallout" really means, and yet after explosions and fires at Fukushima, farmers and cattlemen are still feeding exposed straw to livestock?? WTF? I'm just a damned botanist teaching English in Asia and after 3/11 I *IMMEDIATELY* knew that when "the dust settled" (literally and figuratively) much of Japan would be contaminated. It's far from unreasonable to expect TEPCO and the Japanese government to have come to the same conclusion: they probably did, but they just didn't act on that knowledge. Their reasons? Excuses? Irrelevant. Throw all the bastards out. They're all traitors to the Japanese people. *THIS* is why you should never trust governments or corporations. Well OK, if you want to have a functioning society, exceptions must be made, but follow the purported Russian adage: Trust, but Verify. We've got the UN, the Red Cross, we've got Amnesty International, do we now need a similar oversight organization for nuclear accidents? Don't look to the IAEA...well, unless Mr. Ritter gets put in charge, that is...

Atoms for peace, eh?

This is just the beginning of the food contamination period!

This is just one more toxic food for the consumer to be concerned about. The list of foods that can be safely eaten without fear of future health issues because of it would be lengthy, if compiled.

Hmmm, this reminded me of the various "Road Warrior" movies. People were always offering to sell him food or water and he'd whip out his geiger counter, listen to it crackle, and walk away with an expression of disgust. ------------------------------------------------P------------------------------------------------------------- Starving people will eat contaminated food, those dying of thirst will drink out of a sewage ditch, a billionaire will steal the pennies off a dead man's eyes. He will also sell contaminated food and water without a qualm as long as he can make a profit. ------------------------------------------------P------------------------------------------------------------- The people have no value except as serfs, doing the bidding of their lords and masters for a pittance of food.

"Eating only a portion of the meat will not cause a great deal of damage to one's health," said Goshi Hosono, state minister in charge food safety.

How can we humans speak such outrageous absurdities? Caleb Abell nailed it on the first comment.

And who would eat anything other than "only a portion of the meat"? Oh, one person ate ALL the radioactive meat, it's only a modest number of whole animals.

People will say absolutely ANYTHING.

And people will hear it, and not have the capacity or the will to cut through it to the hard implications of the truth. We generally do NOT wish to face reality.

Just don't eat meat. Even if it's free from steroids, antibiotics, and filthy slaughter houses it is still loaded with bacteria. On hot days like this the cows stand in the creek, shitting and drinking. A vegetarian diet will help you feel better, be sick less often, and live longer.

Anyone who has worked in a biological lab knows how difficult it is to prevent a contamination event even when the contaminant is supposedly isolated. In the case of Fukushima an entire geographical area and everything in it is variously contaminated and that contamination cannot help but be spread outward, like a mould in a Petri dish. But to actively ship beef out of the cesium contamination zone for consumption at a distance should be a criminal offense. Of course, nobody will go to jail for this. "We didn't know!" -30-

This sort of puts a whole new spin on the term "hot" dogs.

Also, when the package says "all beef", that may be the "hottest" buy. so pay attention.

If you haven't become a vegetarian, now is the time (and not just in Japan).

3/11/11 was when Fukushima started having the meltdowns.

It's been 4 months. Birth defects are likely already being seen. If they aren't they will be in the next month or two. I mean the Chernobyl heart and many other visually mutant effects.

Deformed animal births should also be seen right now.

They're just not telling anyone.

I suspect they won't be totally honest about the food and the containment zone - evacuating more people and in spotted areas much farther from the plant, until the defects start being seen.

The real problem here is, it's 2011. All of the effects that will be seen were known already by the scientific community. We've had Chernobyl to glean from if we missed Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Seriously, why are these people acting so stupid with the food? Society appears to be playing dumb and going along. Like gee look.... the meat is contaminated ...surprise. No, it's not a surprise. Not at all.

So Mark Abrams, just how good is that "seasoned" steak just off the grill? Tasty?

fission chips...

When nasty nuclear things happen in Japan CD jumps on it with glee. Yesterday the Prime Minister of Japan Nato Kan told a news conference: "We should seek a society that does not rely on nuclear energy. We should gradually and systematically reduce reliance on nuclear power and eventually aim at a society where people can live without nuclear power plants." Where is you report of this CD? Why are you silent?

"Eating only a portion of the meat will not cause a great deal of damage to one's health," said Goshi Hosono, state minister in charge food safety." What's the difference between a politician and a prostitute? : You get sex from the prostitute, you just get screwed by the politician. ...

Beef that will stay fresh. Good food. Beef in general? Deadly.Tasty though.

The gallows humor on this thread should be made into a Musical! This is why I love CD: the compression of immediacy mostly by people with a long perspective. (I'm not sure what I meant by that, it just popped out!) (On second thought, I really liked it when people here started admitting they are essentially Baby Boomers trying to resurrect the hopefulness, idealism, and sheer energy of the Sixties. (I never went electric; I still play acoustic.) Meanwhile, Crowsnest writes, in part: "When nasty nuclear things happen in Japan CD jumps on it with glee. ..." I totally disagree. Methinks CD is being cautious on the nuclear issue in general and has been for years. Related to this: CD has been publishing Harvey Wasserman's critiques of the Nuclear Power industry in the United States (and France) for years. It is extremely difficult to explain the complexity of the nuclear power "complex" to the general public, and Wasserman is probably the best at that, these days. By contrast, in reading the NYTimes, have you gained a better understanding of how we are being poisoned? While science has advanced way beyond early Valence Theory and the old Periodic Table, some verities seem to remain. Thus, for example, strontium-90, a radionuclide, pretends to be calcium, in part due to its Outer Electron Ring Duplicity, but also in part due to its Atomic Weight, so it ends up in bones, releasing radiation in various forms, inside the body. To expect the average human to comprehend the intricacies of these processes when they are busy trying to survive is something of a conceit, as it gives far too much credit to the Human species. Most of us cannot sense when our cells are being irradiated in small amounts, while at Hiroshima, one could sense the skin melting and the face turning grotesque. Loved ones evaporated. Homunculus Erraticus. Fukushima needs to be understood as the death-knell for Nuclear Power. In theory, nuclear power works. In practice, the humans who operate those systems are far worse than fallible. And the overseers are more concerned with the economics than the physics. But when you combine the two, DECOMMISSIONING Nuclear Power Plants globally would cost TRILLIONS. On the other hand, it could create a whole lot of anti-entropic jobs. /// One more point. Many people here seem to misunderstand the Beef Farming Cycle. Have you noticed the Supermarket difference in the price of beef versus pork versus chicken? Have you noticed that Krogers no longer sells kidneys or brains of any kind? It is important to pay attention to the absence. What if we no longer had Dairy? No milk for children, no cheese, because our Civilization is failing? Human Civilization has been to organize energy. If you think about it, Life itself is anti-Entropic. Nuclear Power is Entropic, against what Henry Adams called The Life Force. Oppenheimer was right. Trinity! The Elites who have stolen Democracy have an obligation to Humanity that they would NOT have, had they chosen to be Egalitarian. They have brought this on themselves. No Economic Theory of substance (yeah, a tautology!) has demonstrated that when the rich shared their wealth, the Tribe suffered. "Globalization" implies a Global Tribe. Pretty Tall Order, Eh? Just ask Obama. -30-