How Americans’ growing appetite for sushi is helping to support his controversial church
By Monica Eng, Delroy Alexander and David Jackson
Tribune staff reporters
Published by The Chicago Tribune April 11, 2006
On a mission from their leader, five young men arrived in Chicago to open a little fish shop on Elston Avenue. Back then, in 1980, people of their faith were castigated as “Moonies” and called cult members. Yet the Japanese and American friends worked grueling hours and slept in a communal apartment as they slowly built the foundation of a commercial empire.
They were led by the vision of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the self-proclaimed messiah who sustained their spirits as they played their part in fulfilling the global business plan he had devised.
Moon founded his controversial Unification Church six decades ago with the proclamation that he was asked by Jesus to save humanity. But he also built the empire blending his conservative politics, savvy capitalism and flair for spectacles such as mass weddings in Madison Square Garden.
In a remarkable story that has gone largely untold, Moon and his followers created an enterprise that reaped millions of dollars by dominating one of America’s trendiest indulgences: sushi.
Today, one of those five Elston Avenue pioneers, Takeshi Yashiro, serves as a top executive of a sprawling conglomerate that supplies much of the raw fish Americans eat.
Adhering to a plan Moon spelled out more than three decades ago in a series of sermons, members of his movement managed to integrate virtually every facet of the highly competitive seafood industry. The Moon followers’ seafood operation is driven by a commercial powerhouse, known as True World Group. It builds fleets of boats, runs dozens of distribution centers and, each day, supplies most of the nation’s estimated 9,000 sushi restaurants.
Although few seafood lovers may consider they’re indirectly supporting Moon’s religious movement, they do just that when they eat a buttery slice of tuna or munch on a morsel of eel in many restaurants. True World is so ubiquitous that 14 of 17 prominent Chicago sushi restaurants surveyed by the Tribune said they were supplied by the company.
Over the last three decades, as Moon has faced down accusations of brainwashing followers and personally profiting from the church, he and sushi have made similar if unlikely journeys from the fringes of American society to the mainstream.
These parallel paths are not coincidence. They reflect Moon’s dream of revitalizing and dominating the American fishing industry while helping to fund his church’s activities.
“I have the entire system worked out, starting with boat building,” Moon said in “The Way of Tuna,” a speech given in 1980. “After we build the boats, we catch the fish and process them for the market, and then have a distribution network. This is not just on the drawing board; I have already done it.”
In the same speech, he called himself “king of the ocean.” It proved not to be an idle boast. The businesses now employ hundreds, including non-church members, from the frigid waters of the Alaskan coast to the iconic American fishing town of Gloucester, Mass.
Records and interviews with church insiders and competitors trace how Moon and members of his movement carried out his vision.
In a recent interview Rev. Phillip Schanker, a Unification Church spokesman, said the seafood businesses were “not organizationally or legally connected” to Moon’s church, but were simply “businesses founded by members of the Unification Church.”
Schanker compared the relationship to successful business owners-such as J. Willard “Bill” Marriott, a prominent Mormon who founded the hotel chain that bears his name-who donate money to their church.
“Marriott supports the Mormon Church but no one who checks into a Marriott Hotel thinks they are dealing with Mormonism,” he said. “In the same way I would hope that every business founded by a member based on inspiration from Rev. Moon’s vision also would be in a position to support the church.”
LEADER’S SEAFOOD STRATEGY
But links between Moon’s religious organization and the fish businesses are spelled out in court and government records as well as in statements by Moon and his top church officials. For one thing, Moon personally devised the seafood strategy, helped fund it at its outset and served as a director of one of its earliest companies.
Moon’s Unification Church is organized under a tax-exempt non-profit entity called The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. The businesses are controlled by a separate non-profit company called Unification Church International Inc., or UCI.
That company’s connections to Moon’s Unification Church go deeper than the shared name. A 1978 congressional investigation into Moon’s businesses concluded: “It was unclear whether the UCI had any independent functions other than serving as a financial clearinghouse for various Moon organization subsidiaries and projects.”
UCI as well as its subsidiaries and affiliates such as True World are run largely by church members, Schanker said. The companies were “founded by church members in line with Rev. Moon’s vision,” he said. “It’s not coincidence.”
Sometimes the links are more direct. The boatbuilding firm US Marine Corporation shares its headquarters offices with the church and lists the church as its majority shareholder, according to corporate records.
SERVING THROUGH BUSINESS
A portion of True World’s profits makes its way to the church through the layers of parent corporations, Yashiro said, adding: “We live to serve others, and this is how we serve by building a strong business.”
Moon predicted in 1974 that the fishing business would “lay a foundation for the future economy of the Unification Church.” In fact, while Moon and businesses affiliated with him reportedly have poured millions of dollars into money-losing ventures including The Washington Times newspaper, the seafood ventures have created a profit-making infrastructure that could last-and help support the church-long after the 86-year-old Moon is gone.
Much of the foundation for that success has its roots in Chicago. True World Foods, Yashiro’s wholesale fish distribution business spawned near Lawrence and Elston Avenues, now operates from a 30,000-square-foot complex in Elk Grove Village.
The company says it supplies hundreds of local sushi and fine-dining establishments. Even many who might have religious reservations about buying from the company do so for one simple reason: It dependably delivers high-quality sushi.
“We try not to think of the religion part,” said Haruko Imamura, who with her husband runs Katsu on West Peterson Avenue. “We don’t agree with their religion but it’s nothing to do with the business.”
Like Moon himself, who served a 13-month prison sentence for tax fraud in the 1980s, the seafood companies have at times run afoul of U.S. laws.
In June 2001, True World Foods’ Kodiak, Alaska, fish processing company pleaded guilty to a federal felony for accepting a load of pollock that exceeded the boat’s 300,000-pound trip limit. The firm was fined $150,000 and put on probation for five years under a plea agreement with prosecutors.
The company also has been cited for sanitation lapses by the Food and Drug Administration. Last year, after repeated FDA inspections found “gross unsanitary conditions” at True World’s suburban
Detroit plant, the facility manager tried to bar inspectors from production areas and refused to provide records, according to an FDA report. The plant manager told the inspectors that his True World supervisor was “a great man, that he was a part of a new religion, and that if we took advantage of him, then ‘God help you!’.”
Later, according to that FDA report, an employee wearing a ski mask approached one female inspector, put his thumb and forefinger in the shape of a gun, pointed at her and said: “You’re out of uniform. Pow!”
Saying they had been “hindered, intimidated and threatened,” the FDA inspectors took the unusual step of securing a court order compelling True World to let them inspect the facility. Yashiro, chief executive of True World Foods, said in a written statement that the “isolated instance ..... arose from a miscommunication.” The plant is now closed; Yashiro said its operations were consolidated into the Elk Grove Village plant in January, adding: “We maintain the highest standards of food safety.”
THE OCEAN KING’S VISION
In the late 1970s, Moon laid out a plan to build seafood operations in all 50 states as part of what he called “the oceanic providence.”
This dream of harvesting the sea would help fund the church, feed the world and save the American fishing industry, Moon said.
He even suggested that the church’s mass weddings could play a role in the business plan by making American citizens out of Japanese members of the movement. This would help them avoid fishing restrictions applied to foreigners.
“A few years ago the American government set up a 200-mile limit for offshore fishing by foreign boats,” Moon said in the 1980 “Way of Tuna” sermon. But by marrying Japanese members to Americans, “we are not foreigners; therefore Japanese brothers, particularly those matched to Americans, are becoming ..... leaders for fishing and distribution” of his movement’s businesses.
Sushi’s popularity had flowered enough by 1986 for Moon to gloat that Americans who once thought Japanese were “just like animals, eating raw fish,” were now “paying a great deal of money, eating at expensive sushi restaurants.” He recommended that his flock open “1,000 restaurants” in America.
In fashioning a chain of businesses that would stretch from the ocean to restaurant tables across America, Moon and his followers created a structure uniquely able to capitalize on the nation’s growing appetite for sushi and fresh fish.
Some of the business start-up funds came from the Unification Church. In a seven-month period from October 1976 to May 1977, Moon signed some of the nearly $1 million in checks used to establish the fishing business, according to a 1978 congressional report on allegations of improprieties by Moon’s church.
After acquiring an ailing boatmaking operation, Master Marine, Moon and his followers turned their attention to establishing the next link in the network. Church members who saw fishing as their calling took to the seas, many powered by Master Marine boats. Moon’s Ocean Church would bring together members and potential converts for 40-day tuna fishing trips every summer in 80 boats he bought for his followers.
Many of the tournaments took place off the coast of Gloucester, Mass., by no coincidence one of the first homes to a church-affiliated seafood processing plant. Moon proudly declared in his “Way of Tuna” speech that “Gloucester is almost a Moonie town now!” (The church has since rejected the term Moonies as derogatory.)
FROM ANGER TO ACCEPTANCE
Sometimes working surreptitiously, Moon affiliates and followers bought large chunks of the key fishing towns–in each case initially sparking anger and suspicion from longtime residents.
The church and its members created an uproar when they bought a villa that had been a retirement home run by Roman Catholic nuns. Moon was hanged in effigy in the local harbor.
Eventually, such resistance withered away. In Bayou La Batre, Ala., Russell Steiner was among community leaders who clashed with the newcomers. But like many in the town, Steiner has mellowed considerably since the church’s arrival. “They have been very active in the community and are very nice people, actually,” he said.
The Alabama shrimp business is among the largest in the Gulf of Mexico, and the nearby boat-building plant has not only built more than 300 boats, but also done repairs on the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy ships, according to federal documents.
And the fish businesses have thrived. Company officials say the wholesale distribution arm, True World Foods, had revenue of $250 million last year.
According to True World Foods, its fleet of 230 refrigerated trucks delivers raw fish to 7,000 sushi and fine-dining restaurants nationwide. Dozens of those trucks leave each day from the Elk Grove Village warehouse, one of 22 distribution facilities around the country.
True World Foods’ Alaska plant processes more than 20 million pounds of salmon, cod and pollock each year, the company says. Its International Lobster operation in Gloucester ships monkfish and lobster around the world from a 25,000-square-foot cold storage facility that is among the largest on the East Coast.
And it is again in an expansionist mood. True World recently opened up shop in England and established offices in Japan and Korea, setting its sights on the world’s biggest market for sushi.
AN EMPIRE’S CHICAGO ROOTS
When Takeshi Yashiro arrived in Chicago in 1980 to help set up one of the earliest outposts of the fishing empire, the area had just a handful of sushi joints. That number has ballooned to more than 200 restaurants statewide, and Yashiro’s fish house has flourished.
The son of an Episcopalian Japanese minister, he immigrated to the U.S. and joined the church as a student in San Francisco. On July 1, 1982, Moon blessed Yashiro and his bride along with more than 2,000 other couples in one of his mass wedding ceremonies, in New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
The Rainbow Fish House that Yashiro and fellow church members founded on Chicago’s Northwest Side has become not only the city’s dominant sushi supplier but also the nation’s. The fish house became True World Foods, which buys so much tuna from around the world that it has seven people in Chicago solely dedicated to sourcing and pricing the best grades.
One of True World’s advantages is that its sales force speaks Chinese, Korean and Japanese, making it easy for first-generation ethnic restaurant owners to do business with them.
“It’s kind of tough to compete in this industry with a company that is so global, has a major presence in almost every market and that is driven by religious fervor,” said Bill Dugan, who has been in the fish business for almost 30 years and owns the Fish Guy Market on Elston Avenue, near the original Rainbow shop. “We should all be so blessed.”
But not all of True World’s employees are church members. Tuna buyer Eddie Lin recently left True World for Fortune Fish Co., a local rival. Lin said his former workplace was not overtly religious, but he added that as a non-church member he felt his ability to advance was limited. “You can feel the difference between the way they see members and non-members,” Lin said.
FAITH-BASED BUSINESS CULTURE
While disputing such assertions, Yashiro noted that new employees “have to know that the founder is the founder of the Unification Church. It’s a very clear distinction between joining the church or not joining the church. There’s no discrimination, but I think our culture is definitely based on our faith.”
It’s that faith that makes some uneasy. Wang Kim, a Chicago-area youth ministry director and M
oon critic, was certain he could find local Korean Christian sushi restaurateurs who didn’t use True World because they might consider his views heretical. As Kim said, Moon “says that he is the Messiah, and we hate that.”
But Kim called back empty-handed. “I checked with several of my friends,” he said, “and they know it is from Moon but they have to use [them because] they have to give quality to their customers.”
The sheer success of the venture has left lingering questions even in the minds of Moon’s dedicated followers. Yashiro, the Chicago pioneer who now heads True World Foods, remembers dedicating his career and life 26 years ago to achieving Moon’s dream, which included solving world hunger.
But that part of Moon’s grand vision has yet to materialize. “I was wondering if we are really here to solve the world’s hunger,” Yashiro said. “Every day I ..... pray on it.”
He still hopes True World Foods eventually will help end hunger. But until then, he said, his role will be to grow the business and make money.
Fascism and the Dangers of Economic Concentration
With radiation showing up in Tokyo’s supermarkets, it’s worth noting that True World is still up to its old tricks.
Considering the Unification Church’s dominant role in the Gulf of Mexico shrimping business, the recent NY Times report on the decimated shrimp populations in the Gulf is extra worrying. You also have to wonder how much of that $20 billion BP-spill compensation fund is heading into the Unification Church’s coffers (since it doesn’t sound like the local residents have had much luck getting their hands on it). Oh well, at least it sounds like it’s safe to eat! *eye roll*
Another chilling round of updates just released suggests 20 times more cesium was leaked into the ocean during the initial radiation release then previously estimated, putting the total estimate for the ocean release at 27,000 becquerels (the ‘Little Boy’ bomb released 89 becquerels, for reference). Note that this is just the initial release in the to ocean and atmosphere and doesn’t appear to include all of the radiation that has been leaking from the plants since then as a result of rain and spraying.
There’s also a new estimate of the clean up time: 3 years before radioactive waste disposal facilities will be online and 30 years for a complete cleanup.
two steps forward: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204479504576636503693856820.html
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...
Tepco said that emissions from the plant are now estimated at 100 million becquerels per hour, or one eight-millionth of their peak on March 15, though Tepco officials noted current levels are still higher than normal.
The assessment came after temperatures in the three damaged reactor cores all recently fell below 100 degrees Celsius, stopping radioactive steam from being emitted into the atmosphere.
“Stopping the steam leakage is a major step forward in terms of radiation control,” said Tadashi Narabayashi, professor of reactor engineering at Hokkaido University.
...
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one step back:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011–11-01/tepco-says-nuclear-fission-possible-at-fukushima-plant-2-.html
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Tokyo Electric Power Co. detected signs of nuclear fission at its crippled Fukushima atomic power plant, raising the risk of increased radiation emissions. No increase in radiation was found at the site and the situation is under control, officials said.
The company, known as Tepco, began spraying boric acid on the No. 2 reactor at 2:48 a.m. Japan time to prevent accidental chain reactions. Tepco said it may have found xenon, which is associated with nuclear fission, while examining gases taken from the reactor, according to an e‑mailed statement today.
...
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and one very ill advised drink of water: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/japanese-official-drinks-water-from-fukushima-reactor-buildings/
”
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As Asahi Shimbun explained, that skeptical mood was obvious last month when a journalist dared Mr. Sonoda to drink some of the water.
At an Oct. 10 news conference hosted by Tepco, a freelance writer said: “Because we are prohibited from entering the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant grounds, we have to trust the information provided by Tepco. If the water is really safe enough to drink, can you provide the water in glasses and have everyone drink it?”
Three days later, a muckraking journalist named Yu Terasawa pointed out to Mr. Sonoda that, in 1996, when the public was concerned that radish sprouts might be contaminated with E. coli bacteria, the Japanese health minister at the time ate some to demonstrate his faith in the food’s safety. “Since Tepco officials said the water is safe enough to drink,” the journalist asked, “why don’t you drink a cup? Will you drink it?”
On Monday, after gulping down half a glass of the water, Mr. Sonoda said: “Just because I drank the water does not mean that its safety has been confirmed, so there is no significance to the act. I drank it because a request had been made.”
...
”
The phrase “avoiding ownership of the problem” comes to mind. Some less pleasant phrases too:
Some good news from Dec 1:
You have to wonder how soon residents are going to return to the quarantined region now that it’s technically allowable.
Another huge advantage of getting to the “cold-shutdown” status is that Tepco no longer has to keep pumping water into buildings. This issue was highlighted last week with another announcement. It was good news, in a bad sort of way:
Yes, achieving cold shutdown is indeed a hugely important achievement:
Well that has to have the IAEA breathing a sigh of relief.
In other tangentially related news...
Health officials want you to know that there’s still nothing to be worried about...:
See no evil, hear no evil, radiate no evil.
Of the many scary questions raised by this article, perhaps the scariest question is this: just how hellish did it need to get before the situations was “out of control”?
So no one has died yet from the Fukushima radiation? Well that’s a relief:
What happens if we find out that we “we know” is NOT “representing the situation”?
Well this is confidence inspiring:
Still nothing to worry about...
Shocker: study finds that oil is toxic to marine life. Seriously, this is being presented as a paradigm changing study because, while it has long been known that exposing marine life to oil can be toxic in the lab, folks were apparently skeptical that this was the case in the wild. Yep:
Contemporary “leadership” on display:
If you’re feeling a little dizzy after reading this article, it’s understanble. The centrifugal force from all the spinning may be sucking the blood out of your brain:
So a 50% meltdown rate during a flood was even better than expected performance? Great...
There have been a number of updates on the situation in Fukushima and it’s looking increasingly grim at all four reactors at Fukushima 1. The water levels at reactor 2 appear to have dropped to a surprisingly low level, causing radiation levels to rise so high that existing radiation-resistant robots can no longer function long enough to inside the plant to be useful. Fortunately, the loss of access for the robots isn’t expected to delay the scheduled plant decommissioning. Unfortunately that’s because its scheduled to take 40 years:
The NYTimes also has an update with some additional info. The “cold shutdown” status of reactor 2 is now in question as the article points out that 9 tons of water getting pumped into the reactor 2 every hour, also suggesting that the radioactive water leakage could be much higher than previosly estimated. In addition, reactor 4 still has all the spent fuel rods sitting above it and officials acknowledge that any problems with keeping the vessel filled with water could result in another “colossal” radiation release from those spent rods. Adding to the risk of a radiation release is the fact that reactors 1 and 3 could be in even worse shape than reactor 2, but no one knows because they are still inaccessible and it’s thought that the hydrogen explosion that took place inside reactor 4 days after the tsunami was possibly due to a build up of hydrogen gas that leaked over from reactor 3. The one bit of good news in the report is that Tepco and the Japanese government appear to no longer have any credibility with the Japanese public, so that sort of progress:
That last sentence is perhaps the most chilling statement found in either of the articles because if a successful multi-decade cleanup effort is contingent on no more large earthquakes in the region, it’s probably time for a preemptive evacuation...
On looky, a new pair of nuke plants are approved for the US. Fortunately, the license doesn’t include any of those pesky new regulations adopted after the Fukushima meltdown:
Today’s episode of “Things that aren’t surprising but should be” is brought to you by the UN’s World Food Program:
Fukushima fish for school lunches? I can’t see any problems with this plan:
Dilution is the solution to pollution. Lots of pollution? Lots of dilution.
According to a former Japanese diplomat, the fate of the world depends on what happens to all those spent fuel rods sitting in reactor 4 and he’d like to see the UN assemble a team of experts to address the situation. This sounds like a good idea.
There some new research out on the causes of the Permian extinction event ~250 million years ago, when 95% of marine and land animals went extinct over a relatively short period of time. Take a guess at the new suspected cause...hint: it’s what we’re doing to the planet now:
In the nuclear age we’ve grown up often thinking of “mutually assured destruction” as one big sudden explosive event. It turns out doing nothing meaningful towards fixing our long-term ecological problems for decades and decades is also an act of MADness. The pathetic-slow-grind-down-over-decades-because-humanity-can’t-help-itself version of mutually assured destruction may not have the fireworks of nuclear annihilation but it gets the job done.
And this is not to say that there won’t be plenty of radiation in our slow grind down...
We been given a tentative timeframe for the removal of the spend fuel rods from reactor 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi complex: Removal might start as early as 2014 and should take around a decade. Those spent fuel rods are the biggest danger still lurking in the meltdown aftermath so don’t plan on causing any big earthquakes around Japan for the next dozen years. Things could get really messy otherwise:
Just FYI:
Whoops, that’s a dead link above. Enjoy!
It appears that the radiation being detected in the bluefin tuna might actually save the species because out of control overfishing was sending the fish into oblivion and overfishing may not be as big an issue going forward. Conrats humanity, we’ve hit a low! Woohoo! Our basic eating habits are more harmful to the environment than our nuclear catastrophes:
Just FYI, if you happen to be in Japan, avoid the weird patches of dried black soil, even if you see children playing with it. It’s some sort of goldilocks substance...radioactive enough to nuke you good but not radioactive enough for authorities to clean it up. It is thought that the substance contains large amounts of cyanobacteria, a strain of bacteria that’s seen as a possible solution to the decontamination as a means of dispersing these concentrated patches of radioactive soil. The idea would be to burying these patches deep in the ground and let the bacteria slowly disperse the radaioactive compounds.
Interestingly, in spite of exceedingly high levels of radiation found in some of these patches, there appears to be no plans by many local governments to clean up these patches. Why? Well, Tokyo officials say the detected levels don’t actually exceed the governments limits requiring decontamination...even though it clearly does in a number of instances. Also, because these patches are found normally on the ground, it’s not something that would have an immediate effect on human health. I don’t get it either.
Ok, this HAS to be some sort of indirect attempt to employ the insanity defense. Kudos for the creative script although the acting just isn’t very believable:
What could possibly go wrong?
Two down, 1,533 to go. Keep those fingers crossed:
It’s worth noting that a strong aftershock isn’t the only thing that could force millions to flee:
Also note, that the two rods removed are part amongst the ‘easy’ ones to deal with because they haven’t been used yet. It’s the spent fuel rods sitting in that pool that are going to be particularly troublesome. Also, while the above articles suggest that the spent rods should be removed by the end up next year, according to the following article Tepco is scheduled to start removing them ‘in earnest’ by the end of next year:
Keep those fingers crossed.
This falls into the category of “things that should be immediately investigated”:
This is one of those stories where you really have to hope there was an undetected systemic problem with the data collection because this is some scary data:
And the doctors denials aren’t exactly soothing: “yeah, it’s definitely not due to the radiation...must be something else in the environment that we can’t explain yet”. Well that’s a relief!
Just FYI, seafood devotees may want to go a little light on any bottom-dwelling delicacies for the next few decades:
Note that the cause of the elevated cesium levels is speculated to be due to ongoing radioactive water leakage from the nuclear plant into the ground water and subsequently onto the sea floor. That’s certainly a very real possibility and one we should probably expect at this point given the damage done to the reactor buildings and the earlier reports of highly radioactive water flooding basements of the buildings. But it’s important to keep in mind that there are other plausible mechanisms that could cause this “mystery” and they aren’t mutually exclusive.
It must be nice to be able to be this unconcerned about causing irreversible genetic damage to your entire country:
Yes, the ‘common’ occurance of abnormal thyroid growths in the children of Fukushima is nothing to get stressed over. Stress causes cancer don’t you know. Just accept, for the sake of your own health, that there’s nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.
And here’s another grim reminder of the obvious:
Well, at least this should all be cleaned up in about 50 year. Although, if the Rocketdyne meltdown of 1959 is any indication of what to expect, it might take much longer:
It looks like the US nuclear industry’s plans to overcome public fears over the significant dangers of nuclear meltdowns is to create mini-nuclear reactors that can be configured in a modular fashion. The idea is viewed as a great way to increase US exports too. So, to put it another way, the US nuclear industry’s plans to allay public fears over the unfortunate release of radiation is to sell smaller, cheaper nuclear reactors all over the world:
Water water everywhere, nor any drop to drink. Or store:
This seems like it should be bigger news:
The IAEA just warned Japan that it might take longer than 40 years to decommission the Fukushima Daiichi plant. It’s one of the many bits of bad news that’s continuing to leak out of that disaster zone:
They might want to reconsider those restarts:
Also note that, while the strontium levels didn’t appear to be changed from before the recent leaks were detected, that’s not necessarily good news.
In case anyone needs a reminder that the Fukushima disaster is still a full-scale mega-catastrophe, here you go!
TEPCO is now admitting that radioactive water might be seeping into the ocean. This comes after repeated past denials. So, while there’s radioactive water that’s probably been continually leaking into the ocean for the last two years and there appears to be little TEPCO can do about that, at least they’re now sort of admitting the obvious. 21st century progress:
“Contaminated water could rise to the ground’s surface within three weeks”:
While the latest reports indicate that radiation levels around Fukushima have been holding steady (a sign, scientists say, that the situation is clearly not under control), it appears that the isotopic distribution of the radiation spewing out of Fukushima is changing. Less cesium, and more strontium. This isn’t a sign of progress:
There was a segment on Thom Hartmann’s show yesterday where a guest from Beyond Nuclear discussed the evolving situation around Fukushima. The very alarming possibility was raised that the plan to freeze the ground around Fukushima to trap the leaking water around a frozen wall might actually be turning the ground underneath the damaged plant into radioactive quicksand and threatening the entire structure. So, with that in mind, check out the new plans:
Remember of the Japanese government recently intervened in the Fukushima cleanup to announce that Tepco had been systematically under-reporting the seriousness of the crisis? Well, here’s another report along those lines, although in this case it’s an international nuclear expert that’s warning that the recent elevated warnings by the Japanese government aren’t elevated enough:
Note that previous reports indicated that 300 tons of radioactive water was leaking EVERY DAY from the basement of the plant. The reason this latest leak of 300 tons of water is so dire is that this is a leak from an above ground water storage tank that is much more radioactive than the water leaking from the basement.
Continuing...
There are reports that the radioactivity levels of the of the water leaking from the storage tanks around Fukushima have suddenly spiked to 1800 millisieverts, from a reported 100 millisieverts last week. 1800 millisieverts is enough to kill a person after four hours of exposure and this is a leak from one of the 1000 storage tanks used to hold the water in need of treatment so it’s a sign of how dangerous the environment is for the workers on site. The 18-fold jump in radiation levels doesn’t appear to be due to a sudden new leak, though. Instead, we’re learning that the 100 milliseivert level reported last week was also the maximum amount they could measure with the equipment used at the time. It’s the latest change in a situation that looks to be likely to continue evolving for many years to come:
That’s right, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is slowly becoming the Great Radioactive Pacific Garbage Patch (because Captain Planet just has it too easy).
Also recall that the dilution of radioactive particles in the ocean doesn’t mean it’s also going to get diluted in the wildlife. ‘Bioaccumulation is the gift that keeps on giving.
It’s finally here: Radiation from the original 2011 Fukushima disaster has finally traveled across the ocean to reach the shores of North America. But it’s also at miniscule levels so you’re very unlikely to notice its here unless you happen to be carrying a Geiger counter at the beach.
So taking a dip in the ocean shouldn’t really be a concern at this point. And it never really was unless you happened to be swimming around Fukushima. It was always that post-swim snack that was going to be more of potential concern for people living outside of Japan. Especially if your snack spent some time swimming around Fukushima;
:
Aha, so:
Well, it all sounds like one more reason for not just the UK but nations everywhere to have rigorous food-import screening regimes as the globalization of the food supply makes it harder and harder of nations to keep track of where their food is coming from. Better safe than sorry!.
With the US Senate having just passed a bill to grant President Obama Trade Promotion Authority, the prospect of trade agreements effectively becoming the highest laws in the land, globally, over the next 6 years is now very much a reality.
So with that in mind, let’s take a look at some of fun features we should expect from a world where “free trade” gets elevated to the level of some sort of cosmically mandated force. Fun features like the freedom to export your food to nations that don’t want it because they’re worried that it might be radioactive. That kind of freedom:
“If they can’t resolve the dispute after 60 days, Japan can ask the WTO to assemble a panel of trade experts to rule on its complaint.”
In other fun food news, if you have an expired package of Nestle’s “Maggi” brand noodles sold in India, there’s a whole new reason to give it a pass after food inspectors found seven times the allowable levels of lead in all the tested packages that were manufactured in Feb 2014. Although if expired noodles are the best food option you have, Nestle doesn’t seem too concerned about it all.
It looks like TEPCO has finally arrived at a medium-term solution for dealing with it’s growing problem of where to store the 300 tons of radioactive water that it’s generating each day by pumping it out of the reactor building basements. The solution should cut in half that daily buildup of contaminated water and it’s very simple and elegant: It’s the ol’ “pump and dump” scheme. Pump 300 tons of water from the reactor basements, treat it for radiation (hopefully), and them dump around 150 tons into the ocean. Every day:
So until all the melted cores are extracted and dealt with, it looks like the ocean dumping of treated water pumped out of those reactor buildings is now the official plan (as opposed to the unofficial plan). So let’s hope those radiation scrubbers remain fully operational...for the next few decades or so.
Here’s a reminder that radiation is very far from the only pollutant you might find if your fish sticks: Researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography recently took a at a broad array of studies examining the levels of pollution in ocean life and found that, while persistent organic pollutants (POPs) with a tendency to stick around for long periods continue to contaminate fish populations from around the globe, impacting virtually every species, the levels of pollutants are still only about half of what was found a generation. So, all in all, it was pretty bad news, but relatively good bad news:
“This means that the typical fish that you consume today can have approximately 50 percent of the concentration of most POPs when compared to the same fish eaten by your parents at your age...But there still remains a chance of getting a fillet as contaminated as what your parents ate.”
Well, it could be worse! Just imagine how polluted the oceans would be if the inadequate efforts in recent decades to control ocean pollution weren’t even done at all. You go from polluted fish to no fish. So at least things appear to be getting somewhat better on that front.
And now here’s a recent study that’s a reminder that the health of the oceans doesn’t simply depend on stopping ocean pollution. Because if we don’t also stop polluting the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, you could have the cleanest oceans in history and still have a lot of dead fish:
“By 2030 or 2040, according to the study, deoxygenation due to climate change will be detectable in large swaths of the Pacific Ocean, including the areas surrounding Hawaii and off the West Coast of the U.S. mainland. Other areas have more time. In the seas near the east coasts of Africa, Australia, and Southeast Asia, for example, deoxygenation caused by climate change still won’t be evident by 2100.”
Well, it could be worse. At least it won’t be a simultaneous oceans-wide suffocating collapse. We’ll have a whole century to smother the oceans. Although that also means the areas that don’t end up suffocating first are also going to be the only places left to fish as the rest of the ocean ecosystems collapse around them. Best of luck, Nemo.