The first sprouts are beginning to emerge on Colors of the Seasons Farm, 45 miles from the malfunctioning Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant and 20 miles outside the evacuation zone.
28-year-old Masanori Yoshida left his job as a cook at a French restaurant in Tokyo three years ago to work his family's land with his wife, siblings, parents, and grandmother. The Yoshidas' farm is one of hundreds of organic farms in Tohoku, the earthquake and tsunami-ravaged region of northern Japan that supplies much of the rice and vegetables to Tokyo and across the country. Government warnings have limited the sale of food grown there since high levels of radiation were detected in some spinach, milk and fish from the region.
"We don't know if our crops will be safe," Masanori says. "We can't ignore this issue. But we won't stop cultivating our land. We farmers need to nurture the environment, nature and culture, and pass them to them to the next generation."
Uncanny Terrain is the new documentary by Junko Kajino and Ed M. Koziarski, the filmmakers of The First Breath of Tengan Rei and Homesick Blues. We will follow the Yoshidas and other organic farmers in Tohoku as they contend with the threat that nuclear fallout from the Fukushima Power Plant poses to their land and their livelihood. From spring planting season, we will document the testing of their land and crops for radiation, their efforts to adjust to the changing environment, through the harvest and beyond.
