Japan culls livestock around nuclear no-go zone

The Japanese government plans to cull a vast amount of swine, cattle and poultry in the nuclear evacuation zone surrounding the country’s damaged nuclear plant, several news sources report. Livestock producers in Fukushima, in the North East of Japan had to leave behind their animal herds when a 20 km evacuation zone around the nuclear power plant was imposed after the tsunami and earthquake had happened on March 11. The disaster had knocked out the plant’s cooling systems.

Figures

The departure of farmers from the no-go zone resulted in the abandonment of an estimated  31,500 pigs, 3,400 cows, and 630,000 chickens at least, these figures were reported prior to the crisis. The cows once the pride of Fukushima prefecture, prized for their marbled beef and rich milk were left behind in the scramble to escape, many of them locked in sheds where they starved to death, farmers have said. Read more ...

This blog is written by Martin Little The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine and International Milling Directory from Perendale Publishers