An enormous amount of radioactive substances leaked from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of Tokyo Electric Power Co. in an unprecedented accident when wide areas of the Tohoku region were destroyed by the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011. Agricultural and livestock products in the areas were polluted by the radioactivity at the time. What mattered most seriously was so-called harmful rumors. Sales fell sharply in some of those areas due to unfounded information that even unpolluted products could be dangerous. This reporter visited a farm in Miyagi Prefecture in the summer to see what the situation was at the time of the quake/tsunami disaster and what it is at present.

東日本大震災では地震動と津波の影響で、東京電力の福島第１原子力発電所で放射性物質の放出を伴う未曽有の事故が発生した。このとき放出された放射能に汚染された農畜産物があった。問題なのはいわゆる風評被害であり、汚染されていない農畜産物までもその危険があるという根も葉もないうわさや情報で、売り上げが大幅に低下する地域もあった。この風評被害について、震災当時の状況や現状などを探った。

Soon after the nuclear mishap, radioactivity beyond the provisional regulation levels was detected from some farm products in Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures. That prompted the administrative authorities to urge the farmers to restrict or voluntarily withhold their shipments. The problem was that these measures brought about an impact far more serious than the authorities had thought. Some other farm and livestock products that contained radioactivity less than the levels set in the Food Sanitation Act were also affected. Their handling was rejected at the distribution level, their prices plunged and consumers held off on their purchases.

原発事故により、震災当時、福島、茨城、栃木、群馬、千葉各県の農産物から、暫定規制値を超えた放射性物質が検出されたため、出荷制限や出荷自粛要請の措置が取られた。問題はこうした措置の結果、食品衛生法に定められた放射性物質の規制値を下回り、出荷停止や自粛対象ではない農畜産物に対しても、流通段階での取り扱いの停止、価格低下、買い控えなどが起こったことだ。

Sales fell by half 

震災当時半減した売上

Specifically, leaf vegetable sales at the Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market, little affected in the first half of March in 2011, fell to 81% of the year-earlier level in the latter half of the month and to 51% in the first half of May, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Why is the data from the Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market used here? It is because you cannot see the effect of damage caused by rumors by comparing sales data made available in Fukushima and neighboring prefectures. People who live there feel no resistance in buying farm products shipped out of the Tohoku region because they understand the actual situation of farming there and are not influenced by rumors. In contrast, many people in the metropolitan area tend to give in such rumors. Tokyo’s Central Wholesale Market had accepted most of fruits and vegetables from the Tohoku region before the disaster. Once their shipments from the region are curbed or suspended, the impact was quite visible at the market.  

具体的には、２０１１年の東京市場の葉菜類の売上額の前年比は、同年３月中旬まで１００％を下回ることはなかったが、下旬には８１％、同年５月上旬には５１％までに落ち込んでいる（農林水産省「青果物流通統計旬報」より）。なぜ、東京市場のデータかというと、福島や近隣の県での売り上げを比べても、風評被害の影響が分かりにくいためである。これらの県に住む人々は東北の農業の実情を理解し、風評に流されることなく、そこで生産された農産物の購入に抵抗がない。それに対し、首都圏では風評に流される人々も多く、東京市場は今まで東北から農産物を多く入荷していたので、同地からの入荷を抑えると、如実に東日本大震災の影響が見て取れるためである。 

This reporter interviewed Shigetaka Watanabe, representative of “Kumakko Nouen” in Sendai’s Akiu, which produces vegetables without using pesticides and chemical fertilizers. The farm grows about 70 kinds of vegetables and directly delivers a pack of eight to 12 varieties to consumers.

そこで、実際に東北へ赴き、農薬・化学肥料不使用で野菜を生産している仙台市の「仙台秋保くまっこ農園」代表、渡辺重貴氏に話を聞いた。同農園では、年間約70種類の野菜を無農薬で栽培、収穫したばかりの野菜を8～12品まとめて畑から直送するサービスも行っている。

　While it had expanded its annual sales by 20% from a year earlier before the quake disaster, it saw sales drop to about 90% of the pre-disaster level in 2011. The damage was not serious right after the disaster. However, after the news on the hazard of radioactivity spread in June, suggesting that vegetables could be polluted, the farm had phone calls from customers asking for suspension of the delivery service.

　毎年、くまっこ農園の売り上げ前年比は約１２０％と、着々と事業を拡大してきたが、震災のあった２０１１年だけは前年比約90％に下がってしまった。震災直後には影響が出なかったのだが、６月以降、ニュースなどで放射能の危険性や、その放射能で野菜が汚染されている可能性が示唆されてから、今まで配達していた顧客から断りの電話をいくつかもらったという。

Many of those customers were residents of prefectures other than Miyagi. Watanabe’s farm checks vegetables for radioactivity every season. But sales slowed down even while their radioactivity was well below the regulation values. He said, “We were pleased we could keep our sales in 2011 at 90% of the year before. We had been worried that the damage might be much worse.” He said his farm could hold down the damage from rumors by turning the vegetables sold for door-to-door delivery service to the local farm stands.

その顧客の多くは県外在住であった。くまっこ農園では栽培した野菜は季節ごとに放射能の検査をしており、いずれも規制値を超えるような数値が出ていないのにもかかわらず、売り上げは伸び悩んでしまった。それでも渡辺氏は「震災のあった2011年で、売り上げの前年比を約90％までに抑えられてよかった。もっと売り上げが下がる事態も覚悟していた」と語る。風評被害をここまでに抑えられたのは、宅配で売っていた野菜を直売所に回したからだ。

Uneasiness yet to be dispelled

拭いきれない不安

There were times when farmers who shipped out their vegetables to the local market tried to sell them by cutting prices. Kumakko Nouen which targets individual consumers did not do that. On the situation in those days, Watanabe said, "Shifting the vegetables sold in door-to-door delivery service to the farm stands was not what I had really wanted to do." After all, that turned out to be less efficient. But the main reason he cited was the psychological damage he suffered when he had to throw away the vegetables left unsold at the stands. His farm managed to recover its 2012 total sales almost back to what they had been before the 3/11. But its door-to-door delivery sales remain slumped to this day. Three and a half years after the disaster, the farm is working hard to get back its delivery-service customers (households and restaurants) by publicizing the safety of vegetables through radioactivity checks and by routinely updating its blog.

販売のターゲットが個人であるくまっこ農園では行わなかったが、市場に売り出す農家などでは、野菜の価格を下げて売っていた時期もあった。当時の状況について、渡辺氏は「宅配で扱う使う野菜を直売所に出すのは本望でなかった」と話す。やはり、効率が良くないことと、なにより余った野菜を自分で捨てなければならない精神的ダメージが大きかったことを理由に挙げる。農園の2012年総売り上げはほぼ震災前に戻ったが、宅配で売り出す量は減ったまま。震災から3年半経った現在でも、放射能の検査を行うことで安全性を示したり、ブログをこまめに更新したりするなど、宅配の顧客（一般家庭やレストラン）の増加につながる対策を講じている。]

It is not easy to sweep away the uneasiness of people who have been led to have preconceptions that vegetables from the Tohoku region may be polluted by radioactivity. Watanabe and many other farmers have been taking various measures to dispel such uneasiness. But it may take time before consumers outside the region decide to resume buying them. Famers in Tohoku are still struggling every day to expand sales to make up for the loss caused by rumors.

東北の野菜は放射能に汚染されているかもしれないとの先入観を持ってしまった人の不安を拭うのは容易ではない。渡辺氏はじめ様々な農家が、様々な対策を講じているが、東北以外の人たちに再度買ってもらえるようにするにはまだまだ時間がかかりそうである。東北の農家は今も、売り上げを伸ばし風評被害の埋め合わせをするため日々奮闘している。

(Written by: Toshihiro Horibe)

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