"Uncanny Terrain," a documentary about organic farmers facing Japan's nuclear crisis

"Uncanny Terrain" is a documentary in progress, about organic farmers facing Japan's nuclear catastrophe. A Chicago-based, Japanese American film making team will spend up to a year in the radioactively contaminated regions of northeast Japan downwind of the devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which is still releasing radioactive steam onto the winds nearly five months after the radioactive catastrophe began. Fukushima and neighboring prefectures are famous for their small, family-run, independent organic farms. Husband and wife team Junko Kajino and Ed M. Koziarski have already captured powerful and moving video testimonies, such as of a dairy farmer, just 14 km from Fukushima Daiichi, who refuses to kill his herd, despite orders to do so, as his "only protest against the government and TEPCO." (see entry immediately below) The film makers are requesting monetary donations to enable them to continue their work.

Fukushima dairy farmer keeps cows alive as protest against Tepco and Japanese government

The YouTube video embedded in a recent UK Progressive article about Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe features a dairy farmer from a short distance downwind of the castrophically leaking reactors. Despite government orders to kill his cows, he refuses to, saying emotionally that keeping his herd alive is his only protest against Tokyo Electric Power Company and the Japanese federal government. He is calling for his herd to be used for research on how bad the radioactive contamination is in the area, in order to better protect people. The video also contains disturbing stories about the conditions for livestock on his neighbors' abandoned farms.

Animals suffer the effects of Fukushima nuclear devastation

The Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan has taken a massive toll on animals. The fate of wildlife is largely unknown, but domestic pets and livestock continue to suffer.  

Livestock were forcibly abandoned and left behind to starve. Cows contaminated with cesium five times the permissible level have been slaughtered. Buried in the ground, their radioactive carcasses will continue to contaminate the land for decades if Chernobyl is any indication.  

Family pets were left behind, tied, abandoned in homes, or left to roam the streets in search of food. Their owners were forbidden to return or were allowed to make brief visits to feed them, often too late.

A rabbit born without ears is stoking fears of birth defects and genetic damage among humans while whales have been caught that are found to be contaminated with radioactive cesium.

In the event of US reactor accidents, citizens are encouraged to evacuate with their pets. However, evacuation shelters and most hotels do not allow animals. Livestock, of course, cannot be evacuated.

Sign our petition to protect animals from nuclear devastation by supporting safer renewable energy.

Update on July 25, 2011 by admin

On July 18th, Reuters also reported on the radioactively contaminated beef in Japan, in an article entitled "Fukushima: 554 cows fed contaminated feed shipped."

Nuclear Power: Radiation Found in Two Japanese Whales

"Leaks from a damaged nuclear power plant may explain why two whales caught along the northern coast had traces of radiation, AP reported on Wednesday.

'Out of 17 minke whales caught off the Pacific coast of Hokkaido, two showed signs of radioactive cesium-- about one-twentieth of the legal limit, according to fishing officials." Third Age

Earless baby bunny near Fukushima Daiichi stokes fears of radiogenic mutations

A baby bunny apparently born without ears (photo at left) in the town of Namie, near the massively leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, has raised concerns about mutagenic effects caused by radioactivity in the environment. Naysayers abound, despite evidence of genetic mutations in animals (such as a two headed calf) and plants (including deformed flowers) in the aftermath of the Three Mile Island meltdown collected and documented by Mary Osborn; numerous scientific studies showing adverse impacts on wildlife populations in Chernobyl contaminated regions, such as on birds by Dr. Tim Mousseau of the University of South Carolina; and, further back in time, an epidemic of ewe deaths in southwest Utah immediately downwind of the Nevada Nuclear Weapons Test Site. An excellent book by John G. Fuller, "The Day We Bombed Utah," published in 1984, recounts how Mormon sheep farmers experienced unprecedented sheep and ewe deaths in the early 1950s, shortly after nuclear weapons blasts upwind in Nevada. The farmers sued the Atomic Energy Commission for damages. AEC research scientists swore, under oath, that they had no evidence that radioactivity could cause such a die off in sheep and ewes. However, over a quarter century later, it was shown by the sheep farmers and their attorney that the AEC had lied -- they had conducted experiments on sheep at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State: they observed die offs very similar to what occurred in Utah. The same judge who had presided over the original trial heard the new evidence as well, and ruled that the AEC had perpetrated a fraud upon the court. Fuller also wrote "We Almost Lost Detroit," published in 1975, about the 1966 partial meltdown at the Fermi 1 experimental plutonium breeder reactor in Monroe, Michigan.