I don't know
I lived in Mannheim, (West) Germany when Chernobyl hit. They're over 1100 miles (1919km) apart from each other according to Google maps. I traveled immediately afterward, first to Cambridge, UK, where there were some trace winds, then to Modesto, CA, where the winds hitting was all over the news, then to Farmville, VA, and finally about 10 days after Chernobyl happened, back to Mannheim.
Americans had be warned not to buy fresh produce, but I'd been gone when the warning went out and no one thought to tell me when I got back. I was a Locavore before the term had been coined because it was so much cheaper and fresher to go to the farmer's market on Saturday mornings. My gynecologists think my fertility issues are probably linked to my exposure to Chernobyl through food. (These days they're linked to the fact that, at 50, I'm menopausal.)
My parents stayed in the US visiting with my sister for longer than I did. The warning was lifted not long after they came back, and since they'd done California before I got there, their exposure was less. (To this one, Dad was at Army War College when Three Mile Island happened, so he was exposed to that, much milder, one.)
When they got back, Dad had a lecture in Nurnberg. I went with them, and, as we drove through the German countryside, we became aware that something was wrong. It finally hit us that we hadn't seen a single cow in the middle of Germany's most famous dairy region. They'd all had to be slaughtered after Chernobyl. The green fields looked stark without livestock in them.
The British eat New Zealand lamb because Welsh sheep had to be slaughtered as their meat was no longer fit for consumption. Even now, Wales hasn't fully recovered from that.
This is what Japan is facing. A country with low birthrates may face a fertility crisis. Kobe Beef, a prime export and a hugely popular local food, may not be edible. Their fields for grain and vegetables may be poisoned.
I've read in some places, mostly before we knew about the nuclear issues of this earthquake, that Japan isn't like Haiti, it's prepared for this. With the nuclear aspect now the biggest headline, I can tell you: it isn't. No country is prepared for the ramifications of nuclear fallout. Japan as a nation is more aware than most. Nagasaki and Hiroshima mean that they have a better clue.
But the realities of food and drink, economic issues, and the emotional devastation from illnesses and death, are incalculable.
Americans had be warned not to buy fresh produce, but I'd been gone when the warning went out and no one thought to tell me when I got back. I was a Locavore before the term had been coined because it was so much cheaper and fresher to go to the farmer's market on Saturday mornings. My gynecologists think my fertility issues are probably linked to my exposure to Chernobyl through food. (These days they're linked to the fact that, at 50, I'm menopausal.)
My parents stayed in the US visiting with my sister for longer than I did. The warning was lifted not long after they came back, and since they'd done California before I got there, their exposure was less. (To this one, Dad was at Army War College when Three Mile Island happened, so he was exposed to that, much milder, one.)
When they got back, Dad had a lecture in Nurnberg. I went with them, and, as we drove through the German countryside, we became aware that something was wrong. It finally hit us that we hadn't seen a single cow in the middle of Germany's most famous dairy region. They'd all had to be slaughtered after Chernobyl. The green fields looked stark without livestock in them.
The British eat New Zealand lamb because Welsh sheep had to be slaughtered as their meat was no longer fit for consumption. Even now, Wales hasn't fully recovered from that.
This is what Japan is facing. A country with low birthrates may face a fertility crisis. Kobe Beef, a prime export and a hugely popular local food, may not be edible. Their fields for grain and vegetables may be poisoned.
I've read in some places, mostly before we knew about the nuclear issues of this earthquake, that Japan isn't like Haiti, it's prepared for this. With the nuclear aspect now the biggest headline, I can tell you: it isn't. No country is prepared for the ramifications of nuclear fallout. Japan as a nation is more aware than most. Nagasaki and Hiroshima mean that they have a better clue.
But the realities of food and drink, economic issues, and the emotional devastation from illnesses and death, are incalculable.