Ichio Watanabe, head of the federation of cattle breeders’ cooperative associations in Fukushima, expresses anger toward the nuclear power plant at the federation’s general meeting in Fukushima on Friday, June 21.
The federation of cattle breeders’ cooperative associations in Fukushima decided on disbanding the organization in a general meeting held in Fukushima on Friday, June 21, as its member cooperative associations dissolved one after another after the accident of the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant in 2011.
“Why do we have to be the ones to break up our organization which has a long history?” said Ichio Watanabe, president of Ishikawa district’s cattle breeding cooperative association who heads the federation. “If only there hadn’t been the nuclear power plant,” Watanabe said, expressing deep regret and anger.
The federation was established in July 1965 as a federation of cooperative associations for farmers specializing in “wagyu” (Japanese brand) beef cattle breeding. It worked on production and selective breeding of beef cattle to be sold under the brand of Fukushima beef, and contributed to promoting cattle breeding in the prefecture.
However, the nuclear accident brought about by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami led to plummeting prices for calves, and fears of radioactive contamination prevented farmers from using self-produced roughage. As a result, many small-scale farms were forced to quit or scale down their business. Shipments of calves dropped down to some 3,100, two-thirds of the level before the earthquake, and the number of member farms decreased from 1,372 in fiscal 2010 to 872 in fiscal 2012.
As for the cooperative association in Futaba district, located within the 10-kilometer range of the nuclear power plant, all of the 353 member farms were forced to evacuate, and the association failed to reopen its cattle market. Nobuo Nemoto, head of the association who used to grow 20 breeding cows in Naraha town in Futaba, said that the region lost everything – not only the fundamentals of cattle breeding but all of their everyday lives – and stressed that the nuclear power plant should go away.
The cooperative association in Ishikawa also had to close its cattle market in March, as the number of calves decreased. Out of the federation’s four member cooperative associations, the associations in districts of Ishikawa and Iwaki plan to break up soon, after transferring operations to agricultural cooperatives in the area. The association in Higashishirakawa district merged with the agricultural cooperative in the district. The association in Futaba will continue operation to engage in the remaining task of claiming compensation for damages caused by the nuclear accident.
The agricultural cooperatives which succeeded the operations of the cooperative associations will work together with the Fukushima prefectural chapter of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (JA Zen-Noh) and the Fukushima prefectural government to restore the cattle breeding industry in the prefecture. “We will never let the light of cattle breeding in the region die out,” said Watanabe after the general meeting. “We will not be defeated by the nuclear power plant.”
(June 22, 2013)