Case Studies

Mr. Shoji Takizawa manages a dairy farm located 21km from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Before the nuclear accident, they were operating a cycle-based farm, using manure from the cattle barn and growing oats and Italian rye grass. However, after the nuclear accident, shipments of milk from the area within 30km from the nuclear power plant were suspended. Moreover, 100% of the self-supplied grazing pasture was polluted with radioactive substances, and they were forced to buy imported meadow grass, which put pressure on their operation. Therefore, from early on, they tried to resume production of safe pasture-based milk production. They were surveying radioactive cesium and were using decontamination techniques such as reversal tillage. And they were looking for a more effective way.
While having no feasible solution, Mr. Takizawa was taking notice of the effect of phototropic bacteria. In April 2012, together with the EM Research Organization, Inc., he started an experiment using EM Technology hoping for the effect of phototrophic bacteria in EM･1. At first, they examined the transfer rate of radioactive cesium to milk in one cow by feeding it cesium polluted grass (lower than 100Bq/Kg) with EM･1 mixed feedstuff. The result showed that the radioactive cesium level in the milk slightly increased till the second months and then rapidly decreased by half.
 
 Although Mr. Takizawa has never used EM･1 before, the test result made him to decide to use EM･1 for his entire farm. The fact that the radioactive cesium level in the milk reduced, even though it is still not clear how, he saw potential in EM Technology to solve the radioactive pollution. At the beginning, he was using EM Bokashi but changed to AEM (Activated EM･1) after October 2012 because it is easier to manage and store.
 

Feedstuff

• Spray AEM to feedstuff (200ml per cow per day) - Figure 1
• Add AEM when producing FTMR (fermented total mixed ration)
• Spray AEM when producing round bales - Figure 2

Barn Environment

• Spray AEM (non-dilution) inside the barn
• Apply AEM to the liquid manure tank in the manure compost shed

Graph 1 shows that SCC (somatic cell count), which is an indicator of the quality of milk, was lower than before using EM･1, in October 2014. If the SCC is over 300,000/ml, the price of milk will fall lower as a penalty, and therefore, keeping the SSC low is an advantage for management and operation.

The liquid coming from compost is stored in 27 tons of liquid manure tank in the underground of the Takizawa Farm. Because AEM is sprayed in the barn, flies and foul smells were reduced both in the barn and the compost shed and created a stress-free environment for the cows, especially during the summer. 100L of AEM was poured into the liquid manure tank regularly and these EM-fermented liquid manure was used for the pasture.
They are now examining the effect of EM-fermented liquid manure on the radioactive cesium level in soil and its transfer from the soil to grass (Figure 4): Control (chemical fertilizer) vs EM Treatment (spraying EM-fermented liquid manure). 
Graph 2 shows the temporal change of radioactive cesium level in the soil at the test site. In EM area, a decrease of radioactivity was observed.
Graph 3 shows that EM Treatment reduced cesium contamination for both oat and Italian rye grass, comp compared with Control area.