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As much as I love to talk
about the food we eat,
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there's a lot to say
about the food we don't eat.
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The stuff we don't like,
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can't afford,
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or I've just never been offered
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like, fried tarantula in Cambodia,
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or jellied moose nose in Canada.
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But then there are foods
we're afraid to eat.
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We went to a region in Japan
were fears about food grown there
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because of a very major
and very tragic event
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have made consumers weary,
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which makes life
really hard for growers.
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FOOD FEARS
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(Noboru) A lot of sparrows
would come eat the rice.
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We fly kites instead of using scarecrows.
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Rice from this area
has the highest rating,
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and it tastes great.
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This one is called Gohyaku Gawa.
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The green ones are Koshihikari.
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This farm has been in Noboru Saito's
family for eight generations.
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A decade ago,
Saito quit his government job
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to help his mom run the farm.
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I'm 82 years old.
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After my son came back,
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my responsibilities lightened.
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But a year after he returned,
disaster struck.
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There was a massive earthquake.
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When I looked around, the mountains--
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there are lots in this area--
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so these mountains looked like
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they were being swayed or sliding.
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That earthquake was a 9.1 magnitude.
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The fourth most powerful ever recorded
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that triggered a massive tsunami,
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killed more than 15,000 people,
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and damaged
more than a million buildings,
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including the Fukushima
Daiichi Nuclear Plant,
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which is still leaking radiation today.
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There's still piles of radioactive topsoil
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under black tarps near Saito's property,
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which is 50 kilometers
from the power plant.
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(Noboru) Some people decided
to stop farming
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and fled to other regions
with their entire families.
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Personally, I didn't run away.
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I tried to make things work in this region
and fight the radiation.
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It's catching the B-waves
from the radiation.
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We have to make sure
the rice doesn't carry radiation.
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So every spring,
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we put potassium in our paddies.
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It'll absorb potassium
instead of [radioactive] cesium.
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This is known as inhibition of resorption.
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The disaster has forced Saito
to find new ways
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to make sure his produce is safe,
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including raising money on the internet
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to buy a 22,000 dollar radiation tester.
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(Nobuoru) Here, we have some peppers.
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You have to measure their weight first.
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560, 550 grams.
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And then you put it inside.
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The machine will measure the radiation
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and you can see whether or not
it's below the standard.
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It won't confirm until after 15 minutes.
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But already after 30 seconds,
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it's stabilizing at zero.
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The Japanese government says
the food from Fukushima is safe.
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Two years after the meltdown,
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it reported the 1.5% of food products
were over the radiation limit.
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By 2017, that number dropped to 0.05%.
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But people are still reluctant.
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(Noboru) If I bring my produce directly,
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I can answer questions.
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I can sell while talking to people.
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Then, because they understand.
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They buy productos from Fukushima
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with a peace of mind.
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More customers are visiting every week.
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Whether it's our peaches or vegetables,
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they keep coming back
because they taste delicious.
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Just because customers are coming back,
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doesn't mean the disaster
is completely over.
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By 2022, the nuclear plant
will run out of storage facilities
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for radioactive waste water,
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and experts have advised the government
to release the water into the ocean,
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which could impact fishing
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and raise new concerns
about the region's produce.
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Koji Furuyama is also
a farmer in Fukushima
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who specializes in luxury peaches.
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His strategy for shaking
the region's stigma
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is to be the best in the world.
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Japanese agriculture is about making
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the highest quality produce in the world
in limited space.
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This has sugar content of over 20%,
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so it's easily 50,000 yen
[$471] per peach.
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Also, this is the world's
biggest kind of peach.
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It will be this big
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and it will keep growing
bigger and sweeter.
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His best peaches have three times
as much sugar as a supermarket peach,
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and they're priced
at 20,000 dollars a piece.
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Last year, the highest sugar content
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we achieved was 40.5%.
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I tried it myself.
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It was hard to describe with words.
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When someone eats something
that delicious,
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words won't come right away.
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Even his more affordable fruits
are pretty expensive.
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These usually sell
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for 12,000 yen [113] each
in city department stores.
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That means altogether, these boxes
cost around 70,000 yen [$660] each.
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As Japan prepares to showcase
its recovery by hosting the Olympics
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10 years after the earthquake,
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it's announced that the baseball and
softball events will happen in Fukushima.
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Farmers here are excited that the games
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may give them the opportunity
to reintroduce the world
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to their produce.
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(Koji) Well, the people involved in media
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will present to the world
the actual, recovered Fukushima.
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So an event like the Olympics
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will become a plus for a prefecture
like Fukushima.
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Fukushima is stuck
with this image of danger.
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That reputation is global.
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Instead of keeping
that bad memory of Fukushima,
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please visit Fukushima yourself
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and see with your own eyes
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that Fukushima is not
what you imagine it to be.