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Photos of what look like mutated fruits and vegetables from Fukushima, Japan, have surfaced on Imgur. The produce in question suffer from a range of malformations from Siamese-twinned corn cobs to what can only be called peaches with elephantiasis.
A Korean website assembled this image collection of produce from towns and villages surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The region's agriculture appears to have taken a heavy radiation hit from the nuclear disaster in 2011, but it's not clear yet what effect eating the produce might have on the population. The World Health Organization and the Tokyo Electric Power company have tested the area and stated that risk for cancer is minimal, no testing has been done on the mutations exhibited by local flora, and what effects they might have on humans is still not known.
This isn't the first time the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster has sparked fears that radiation was causing deformities in nature. In August 2012, researchers in Japan discovered evidence of mutant butterflies. IScience Times reported that researchers collected 144 specimens of the pale grass blue butterfly, a common species in Japan, two months after the disaster. They found that 12 percent of the butterflies showed signs of mutation and abnormalities, including antennae disfigurement, small wings and a change in color patterns.
The world looks on as the lingering effects of the 2011 catastrophe are now being seen. We can only hope that greater efforts are made to contain the radiation and to protect the safety and health of not only the people of Japan, but the whole world, as oceanic contamination threatens to make this into a global problem.
