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Fujitsu Is Growing Radiation-Free Lettuce In Japan's Fukushima Prefecture

Posted by samzenpus on from the just-eat-it dept.

Taffykay (2047384) writes "Tech giant Fujitsu has opened an organic lettuce farm in Japan's Fukushima prefecture. Blending agriculture, technology, and medicine in a former microchip factory, the company has developed a new variety of organic lettuce that is not only lower in potassium and nitrates than standard varieties, but is also radiation-free."

21 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. Sure! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They'll be saying something different when a 300 foot radioactive lettuce monster is attacking Tokyo....

    1. Re:Sure! by JDeane · · Score: 2

      Biollante VS Godzilla?

  2. Yeah... by HideyoshiJP · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fukushima's a pretty big prefecture (13,782.54 km2/5,321.47 sq mi). It's ranked third by area. I'm sure there's plenty of safe land there.

    1. Re:Yeah... by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, and why would you want a lettuce low in potassium and nitrates anyway? You need those things to live!

      People think Japan is basically 90% uninhabitable because of nuclear holocaust. I want to move out of the US to escape the stupidity.

      --
      Support my political activism on Patreon.
    2. Re:Yeah... by Charliemopps · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's a little over 50 miles away if you just Google the address. It's just outside the exclusion zone set by the US government for US citizens.

      It's INSIDE what was once the companies clean room. So it's distance from the reactor is irrelevant. The point of what they're doing is that they can grow food irrelevant of the conditions outside. Year round. The plants they are growing are specialized for people who have kidney diseases. The lower potassium makes them easier on the liver and the lower nitrates make them for palatable to children and likely people undergoing chemo. i.e. It costs a lot to grow food this way, so they picked a food people were more willing to pay a premium for.

    3. Re:Yeah... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      It's explained in the article

      Your point being?

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    4. Re:Yeah... by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The study that originally connected nitrates with cancer risk and caused the scare in the first place has since been discredited after being subjected to a peer review. There have been major reviews of the scientific literature that found no link between nitrates or nitrites and human cancers, or even evidence to suggest that they may be carcinogenic. Further, recent research suggests that nitrates and nitrites may not only be harmless, they may be beneficial, especially for immunity and heart health.

      Amusing stuff. More nitrate from vegetables than from like 500 hotdogs. 90% of your nitrite exposure comes from internal manufacture.

      --
      Support my political activism on Patreon.
    5. Re:Yeah... by interkin3tic · · Score: 2
      Even MORE importantly

      The trial vegetable farm was set up in a clean room of a renovated semiconductor fabrication plant and is totally free of chemicals.

      How the hell are they growing anything without chemicals such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water?!?

      Serious answer: the article mentions the low potassium as good for people with chronic kidney disease. Nitrate free means less bitter. But if you need such expensive facilities to do so, then it's kind of stupid marketing. It doesn't sound like growing plants without nitrates or potassium is shocking scientifically.

    6. Re:Yeah... by nitehawk214 · · Score: 2

      In many vegetables, potassium is the most radioactive part.

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
    7. Re:Yeah... by antifoidulus · · Score: 2

      Yeah, but that doesn't mean people are eating the vegetables grown there. There are ads on the train all the time where idol groups advertise Fukushima vegetables. Many consumers in Japan still won't eat them(the prefecture/country of origin is shown when you buy fresh produce in Japan).

      This of course is just amplifying the pain that Fukushima prefecture is experiencing. The population of Fukushima dropped by about 3% from 2010 to 2005, and that was BEFORE the earthquake. The population has dropped another 3% or so just in the past 3 years, and is continuing to plummet as younger people leave the prefecture partially due to fears about radiation, but mostly due to a complete lack of economic opportunities. Things are looking pretty grim for Fukushima

      --
      Monstar L
    8. Re:Yeah... by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The study that originally connected nitrates with cancer risk and caused the scare in the first place has since been discredited after being subjected to a peer review. There have been major reviews of the scientific literature that found no link between nitrates or nitrites and human cancers, or even evidence to suggest that they may be carcinogenic.

      That's because those studies were of nitrates, not the high-temperature products of cooking nitrate-laden organics like beef: as nitrosamines.

      As I posted in another link above: nitrates themselves are known to be pretty benign. But there is plenty of good evidence over a period of decades that cooking nitrate-cured food (like hot dogs) produces nitrosamines that are well-known (and long studied) carcinogens.

      Nitrates themselves are probably not much concern. In fact nitrates are known, often-prescribed vasodilators. (Know anybody who takes nitroglycerine for heart problems?)

      As with so many other things, nitrates are not necessarily evil. It is what you do with them that counts.

  3. NOTHING is radiation free by Akaihiryuu · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nothing in existence is "radiation free". There is no such thing. There are MANY MANY MANY naturally occuring radioisotopes. A major one is Carbon-14, which ALL organic materials contain to some degree. I can't determine if the people making this "radiation free" lettuce are either very stupid, or very smart and cleverly marketing to stupid people.

    1. Re:NOTHING is radiation free by sconeu · · Score: 4, Funny

      Reminds me of back in '81, when I was at WUSTL.edu, during the height of the "No Nukes" movement. Some idiot had been quoted in the student newspaper as saying, "any amount of radiation is dangerous".

      So I and a bunch of friends started the SOTS movement. "Stamp Out The Sun... Because ANY Amount of Radiation is Dangerous".

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    2. Re:NOTHING is radiation free by monkeyhybrid · · Score: 2

      A small level of radiation is one thing; it's the dihydrogen monoxide I worry about.

    3. Re:NOTHING is radiation free by sconeu · · Score: 2

      Believe it or not, we actually got approval to post our flyers all over campus.

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  4. Why is this newsworthy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They're growing lettuce in hydroponic trays inside a "clean room" of what used to be a semiconductor plant. It's not really surprising that plants grown in so-called "clean room" conditions in water that isn't from an irradiated area would not contain radiation. Hydroponic gardening has been around for hundreds of years. So, what exactly is the "news" here?

  5. Re:Not radiation free by maxwells_deamon · · Score: 2

    I was thinking that the only way they could do this would be mass spec processing to remove all the radioactive elements (like carbon 14) from the soil and air before supplying this to the plants, They would be the most expensive plants ever harvested but in theory possible.

    Then I noticed the plants were being grown in a building that is "totally free of chemicals" must be virtual food or uneducated people writing the article.

  6. Re:New improved formula! Radiation Free! by boaworm · · Score: 2

    Actually it used to be the other way around. Radiation was a great additive :-) Toothpaste, Underwear. Mineral water. Watches (the arms glows nicely in the dark).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    --
    Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
    Aristotele
  7. Re:New improved formula! Radiation Free! by boaworm · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here is a good summary of many excellent products with Radium added for extra marketability.

    http://io9.com/seriously-scary...

    --
    Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
    Aristotele
  8. Wow! by The+Real+Dr+John · · Score: 2

    Radiation-free lettuce... what will they think of next?

    --
    A brain is a terrible thing to waste... Mind? That's debatable.
  9. That remind me of the glutamate scare by aepervius · · Score: 2

    People fearing MSG because it is everywhere. I tried to explain calmly, that glutamate as amino acid is something around 7% (IIRC) prevalence in protein, so unless you are eating no protein whatsoever , you will eat a lot of glutamate. Also the body internally itself produce 90% (IIRC) of the glutamate for protein creation. But no matter the argument , I could not convince the person that MSG is harmless especially considered the very low quantity.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
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