Surviving cows became Heroes who Restore and Maintain Ecosystem
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Because of the Fukushima disaster on March 11, 2011, hundreds of thousands of farm animals died or were killed.
I’m Satsuki TANI, in response to the disaster, I saved eleven cows and created a cow grazing belt within the restricted area 9 km from Fukushima Daaiichi nuclear power plant.
The cows prevent vegetation over growth in the area. We named it “Moo Mow Garden Fukushima,” and in January 2015 I started publishing a short monthly report on Facebook.
For more information please email:
friends.humane (at) gmail.com
LINKS
Writer, Yoshiko SAKAMOTO's Blog 2018-03-29
(Her report in English, summer 2017)
MOO MOW GARDEN FUKUSHIMA
Monitoring information, Nuclear Regulation Agency Japan
http://radioactivity.nsr.go.jp/en/list/239/list-1.html
(Nogami: Monitoring point No.25)
DJI-0001.mp4
STORY
Everyday, the cows eat grass.
They only eat grass, which is pretty simply. However, for the future of Fukushima, Japan, the cows are doing a very important job.
There are a lot of benefits when cows eat overgrown patches of weeds, bushes and dead grass. These benefits include;
(1) Prevention of wild animals from destroying ecosystem by large breed and from getting killed by traffic accident or gun culling.
(2) Prevention of wild fires.
(3) Prevention of Crime (fewer places for criminals to hide).
(4) Improvement of the Natural Beauty of the Environment.
(5) Prevention of Diseases spread by rotting plants and insects.
(6) Ecological harmony and protection of people's hometowns.
The benefits above are true everywhere.
But In the case of Fukushima, Japan, in addition to the above, the simple but wonderful act of cows eating grass can help prevent the spread of radioactivity. Radioactive particles that otherwise would be absorbed by flying insects, wild birds, and other roaming wild animals is absorbed by the heroic cows.
“Mowing” by cows has increasingly come into use (called “rental cow" in Japan.) as a great way to solve the problems caused by an increasing number of formerly cultivated lands that are now abandoned all over Japan.
This is especially true for areas of Fukushima (20km from the meltdown zone) that people are not allowed to return to and live. The rental cow has become an essential tool for recovering and maintaining harmony of the environment in areas people can’t enter without restriction.
A lot of people have been trying to protect these cows who are helping to heal the environment.
There are many difficulties in Fukushima due to the radiation.
The people who lived there, and were forced to move feel isolated. Their friends and family are leaving. The people who are left behind are continually trying to think of ways to help protect their hometowns. They are thinking of ways, like the rental cows, to try and return the areas to how they used to be. They are also thinking about ways to prevent this kind of devastation from happening again. The people left in Fukushima also love and want to protect the animals in the area. It makes them so sad that most of the farm animals had to be killed.
short movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLDs78K038E
Although it has been very difficult, and the future is not clear, the people and their heroic rental cows are working together towards a better future in Fukushima.
Hopefully you will think about this the next time you see a cow doing something as simple as eating grass.
Ubagami, Nogami, Okuma-town, Fukushima JAPAN
email: friends.humane (at) gmail.com
Monitoring information, Nuclear Regulation Agency Japan
http://radioactivity.nsr.go.jp/en/list/239/list-1.html
(Nogami: Monitoring point No.25)
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