Professor Kosako's "chaotic harvest season" must be now.
84 more meat cows from Fukushima that ate highly radioactive hay were discovered by Fukushima Prefecture, as the prefectural government started to test rice hay fed to the cows.
From Mainichi Shinbun Japanese (2:41PM JST 7/16/2011):
福島県は１６日、新たに放射性セシウムを含んでいたとみられる稲わらを食べた肉牛８４頭が、福島県内を含め東京、埼玉、山形、宮城の５都県に出荷されていたことが分かったと発表した。Fukushima Prefecture announced on July 16 that 84 additional meat cows that had been fed the potentially radioactive rice hay were shipped inside Fukushima, and to Tokyo, Saitama, Yamagata, and Miyagi Prefectures.
福島県によると、出荷した畜産農家はいずれも県内で、▽郡山市２軒▽喜多方市２軒▽相馬市１軒－－の計５軒。このうち郡山市の農家に残っていた稲 わらから１キロ当たり５０万ベクレルの放射性セシウムを検出した。ほかに、相馬市で１２万３０００ベクレル、喜多方市で３万９０００ベクレルの値だった。
According to the Fukushima prefectural government, the cattle farms were located in Koriyama City (2 farms), Kitakata City (2 farms) and Soma City (1 farm). The rice hay from one farm in Koriyama City tested 500,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. In the farm in Soma City, the hay had 123,000 becquerels/kg cesium, and in Kitakata, 39,000 becquerels/kg.
These cities are much further away from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant than Minami-Soma City, where the first case of radioactive beef was traced back.
Distance and direction from Fukushima I Nuke Plant:
Koriyama City: 60 kilometers, west
Kitakata City: 105 kilometers, west by northwest
Soma City: 43 kilometers, north
If the rice hay left on the rice fields accumulated that much radioactivity, particularly in Koriyama, it is definitely not fit for humans to remain. Not to mention the rice field is not fit for growing rice, though it is far too late, as the rice fields in Tohoku are already long planted.