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| Cattle conundrum: "Wagyu" beef cattle are seen in Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, on April 21. The village of Iitate, where the worst radiation levels have been detected since the nuclear crisis at the nearby Fukushima No. 1 power plant, is a major growing region for highly prized cattle in the prefecture. BLOOMBERG PHOTO |
"Wagyu" - pronounced "Wah-giyou" is a type of cattle that produces the very flavourful and expensive Kobe-style beef - a fatty, heavily marbled meat.
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Iitate 'wagyu' farmers blast evacuation order
By AYA TAKADA
Bloomberg
Takeshi Yamada frowns as he surveys his herd of 28 "wagyu" beef cattle, prized for their marbled meat and fetching as much as ¥1 million per head.
"The government told us to evacuate, but we don't want to leave our cattle behind," said the 62-year-old farmer in Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture. "If we're forced to go, we are worried we won't be able to come back and farm again."
Iitate became a haven for refugees after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl by crippling the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station 40 km away. Now the government is telling residents of Iitate and three other villages to leave by the end of May because contamination in soil and water has reached dangerous levels.
The latest evacuation order underscores how the ripple effects of what Prime Minister Naoto Kan called Japan's biggest crisis since World War II continue to play out seven weeks after the record quake. Fukushima's farming industry, worth ¥252 billion a year, is at stake.
"There's no sound from tractors plowing the fields," Yamada said. "It's very quiet, like a silent spring."
April is normally the busiest time of year for Yamada, a time when he plants rice, tobacco and vegetables on a 4.7-hectare plot that helped him earn ¥15 million last year. These days he just feeds his cattle, which may be tainted by radiation, rendering the meat unfit for sale.
Iitate beef has earned the top grade of A-5 for wagyu in Tokyo's wholesale meat market in Shinagawa, and cows have sold for as much as ¥1 million, said Hiroyuki Murayama, a local official in charge of promoting the village's produce.
Japan exported 677 metric tons of beef, including wagyu, in the year to March 31, 2010, government data show. Vietnam was the top buyer, with 433 tons, followed by Hong Kong with 119 tons and the U.S. with 81 tons.
Fukushima is the country's 10th biggest producer of cattle, including wagyu, a breed genetically disposed to intense marbling that makes the meat tender and juicy.
Iitate Mayor Norio Kanno spent 15 years promoting the area's wagyu and organic vegetables. He was rewarded in September when his town was invited to join the Most Beautiful Villages in Japan Union, a group that seeks to preserve rural scenery and traditions.
"What we achieved over a long period of time is being destroyed by the nuclear accident," Shinichi Aizawa, director at the Iitate government office, said in an interview. "Unlike Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, which are beginning to rebuild from damage caused by the quake and tsunami, we are still sinking, with no end in sight."
The population in Iitate has declined to 5,000 from the prequake level of 6,100, as residents, mostly couples with small children, left the village. Of 1,800 households, 1,200 are farming families, Aizawa said.
There it is...
Andrew Joseph
