Fukushima cattle farmers despair over beef ban

USING a special permit, beef rancher Masami Yoshizawa makes a weekly trip inside Japan's nuclear no-go zone around a crippled atomic plant to feed 300 of his cows that still live in the area. Post-quake life under a nuclear shadow was already tough for Fukushima cattle farmers, but they say a ban on shipments of cows from the prefecture amid Japan's latest food radiation scare could destroy their livelihoods. 'Many cows starved to death in Fukushima after the nuclear accident' as farmers did not return to feed them, said Mr Yoshizawa, responsible for some 1,000 cattle in the region as foreman of M Ranch farming. 'Now it's our turn. Cattle farmers will starve to death,' a frustrated Mr Yoshizawa told AFP. The government on Tuesday banned all cattle shipments from Fukushima prefecture due to escalating fears over radiation-tainted beef in the country's meat distribution chain, four months after the nuclear accident. Around 650 cattle are thought to have been contaminated with radioactive caesium from hay they were fed before being sent for slaughter - including some from areas well beyond the 20km evacuation zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant. AFP