First, from Mainichi Shinbun Hokkaido local version (7/23/2011; sorry old news that I just found), I learned of the potentially radioactive beef from Hokkaido, which has largely escaped the radioactive plume blowing from Fukushima I Nuke Plant. The cows in Hamanaka-cho ate the rice hay from Wakuya-cho in Miyagi Prefecture that was contaminated with 1886 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium, the level of which exceeded the national provisional safety limit for cattle feed (400 becquerels/kg). Hamanaka-cho is located on the eastern tip of Hokkaido, facing the Pacific Ocean.
Hokkaido officials are perplexed. "We never thought possible that anyone would buy rice hay from Honshu, because it's too costly." It was beyond their expectation.
The second one is the radioactive manure in Yamagata Prefecture. According to Sankei News (8/25/2011), the Yamagata prefectural government announced on August 25 that the cow manure at 7 cattle farms in the prefecture tested between 500 to 2600 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. All 7 farms were feeding their meat cows with rice hay from Miyagi Prefecture.
What I don't understand is why these farms even bought rice hay from Miyagi Prefecture, when their own prefectures are big producers of rice and there should be rice hay in abundance.
Well, since the leaf compost made out of radioactive dead leaves in Tochigi Prefecture can be mixed with dead leaves imported from Thailand and Bangladesh and sold all over Japan by one company, anything is possible.