“Nuclear Power Plants Cannot Coexist with Organic Agriculture” – 10 Years after the Fukushima Appeal

This article was originally written by Katsu Noda and Toshiaki Takahashi from IFOAM Japan.

In October 2014, Seiju Sugeno, a Japanese organic farmer, took to the stage at the IFOAM Organic World Congress in Istanbul, Türkiye, to share a heartfelt message: Nuclear power plants and organic farming cannot coexist. Only organic farming can restore land contaminated by radiation.

His speech, which later became known as the “Fukushima Appeal,” were met with a resounding applause, three and a half years after the Fukushima nuclear accident.

More than a decade later, in 2025, IFOAM Japan calls on organic farming stakeholders in Japan and around the world to revisit the Fukushima Appeal – especially in light of the Japanese government’s late-2024 announcement of a new energy policy that places renewed emphasis on nuclear power.

Sugeno’s Story: Finding Light in the Shadow of Disaster

Seiju Sugeno is a 66-year-old farmer from Nihonmatsu City, 50 km inland from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. He grows rice, vegetables, and beans; sells rice cakes and red rice with his wife. He also offers farm stays for urban residents.

Immediately after the nuclear accident, residents from areas near the power plant evacuated to Nihonmatsu City to escape radioactive contamination. The number of evacuees reached 1,500 in the Nihonmatsu Towa district, where Sugeno lives, and 3,000 in Nihonmatsu City as a whole. As a result, Sugeno and his colleagues dedicated themselves to supporting them.

Meanwhile, shipments from his fields were suspended, and farmers were forced to halt their work.

“I never imagined that our area would be affected by the nuclear accident,” he recalled.

In late March 2011, shortly after the accident, one organic farmer took his life after seeing how his cabbages, ready for shipment, had to be destroyed due to nuclear contamination. This was not an isolated case, but a situation observed in some dairy farmers, who also lost hope, located within a 30 km radius of the disaster zone.

While many chose to evacuate and seek refuge elsewhere, Sugeno chose to resume farming in his hometown, Nihonmatsu, a mountainous area with a population of 5,256. This area, known as “Satoyama,” is where people live in harmony with nature.

Satoyama: Where Nature and Community Thrive Together

Before the earthquake, Sugeno had already been delivering organic produce directly to consumer cooperatives, consumer groups, and private schools where his produce was used in school lunches in Tokyo and nearby areas. He did this because he valued the “face-to-face exchange” between consumers and producers.

Sugeno also organised farm experience programs, connecting urban consumers with local farmers. Farmers set up guesthouses for overnight stays. Towa district became known as an “organic farming village”, a place where visitors could enjoy the unique beauty of Satoyama and experience local life.

These efforts evolved into broader community-building initiatives, with locals working together to preserve the area’s natural beauty and ecosystems. When plans emerged to build an industrial waste disposal site, residents opposed the project and instead proposed a composting facility. They also suggested building a “roadside station” to promote local agricultural products, with Sugeno leading the effort. The facility became a community hub and created valuable local jobs.

Towa’s Comeback: Planting Hope with Organic Roots

However, this community-building initiative, rooted in organic farming, was suddenly at the brink of collapse due to the nuclear accident. On 17 March, a week after the accident, the government set “provisional regulatory values” for radioactive materials in food to enforce food shipping restrictions starting 21 March.

As a result, Sugeno could not ship any of the vegetables he had grown, nor could he farm or transport goods due to fuel shortage. This was the hardest time for him, but he was still ready to start farming at any time.

Fortunately, radiation levels in Towa’s soil remained below the provisional standard, allowing him to resume farming in mid-April. He introduced radiation measuring equipment and began to measure contamination levels himself.

Learning from the experience of Chernobyl, he made repeated improvements to his cultivation methods, such as deep plowing and spreading lime, successfully halving the detected radiation levels. Recognising these efforts, researchers conducted a comprehensive survey of Satoyama’s water and forests.

Results from the survey indicated that organic matter in organic farmers’ fields absorbs radioactive caesium. Subsequent studies revealed that Towa’s soil is rich in clay minerals and potassium, which prevent caesium from transferring to crops. Sugeno and his colleagues were amazed, calling it the “power of the soil” in the Towa area.

The researchers, organic farmers, and residents worked together to create a “reconstruction programme” covering Satoyama’s forests, water sources, agricultural soil, rice, and household food, aiming to clarify the extent of contamination. They found that even when soil contamination levels were high, only trace amounts transferred to crops. Even right after the nuclear accident, some crops were found to be below the detection limit (ND).

Fallout That Lingers: Fukushima’s Impact, Then and Now

Despite encouraging test results, fear of radioactive contamination lingered. Sales to cities and school lunch programs were suspended, and roadside station sales dropped by half. In response, the community shared radiation data and explained their efforts to reduce soil contamination—yet doubts persisted. Consumers and buyers remained wary due to lingering radioactivity in the soil. Still, Sugeno and his team pressed on, testing brown rice rigorously since 2013 and achieving a 99% non-detection rate over the past five years (detection limit: 12 becquerels).

Enabling Fukushima’s Dream for a Safer Tomorrow

The nuclear accident created a lasting divide between urban and rural communities. As of December 2024, almost 20,000 people evacuated from areas near the nuclear plant are still unable to return to where they used to live. All of them come from agricultural and fishing regions.

Some may assume that production could resume once radiation levels decline. However, it is difficult to restore abandoned fields to their original productivity once they are destroyed. The nuclear accident has shown how easily the harmony between a community and its natural environment can be disrupted.

Fortunately, in Nihonmatsu City, the combined efforts of scientists, producers, and residents, along with the region’s favourable soil conditions, have led to some progress in rural revival.

More young people are moving to Fukushima, where they turn to organic farming. There is an increase in over 300 new and returning farmers in Fukushima Prefecture annually in recent years.

“The Fukushima disaster is not over,” expressed Sugeno, “but the baton is now passed to the next generation.”

This generation is the one that seeks to realise what Sugeno calls the “Fukushima Dream” – to build a sustainable society where children can run freely through rice fields.

10 Years On: Why the Fukushima Appeal matters now more than ever

On 17 December 2024, the Japanese government announced a significant shift in policy to promote nuclear energy. A week prior to this announcement, Hibakusha, the survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. During the Oslo ceremony, Terumi Tanaka, representative of the Japan Confederation of A-bomb Victims Organisations, delivered a powerful speech, urging people to work together for “a world free from nuclear weapons and war.”

Both Tanaka’s award reception speech and Sugeno’s Fukushima Appeal share one message in common: nuclear incidents carry a lasting impact that should not be forgotten. The recovery of Fukushima teaches us a precious lesson: we should advocate for a society where all forms of life coexist peacefully, where they are free from the threats that leave a prolonged destruction as nuclear power plants did to Fukushima, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.