Britain's meat mess

'Mad cow' fallout likely to last years

April 4, 1996
Web posted at: 9:45 p.m. EST (0245 GMT)

From Correspondent Rob Reynolds

LONDON (CNN) -- Britain's "mad cow" disease may soon fade in the headlines, but what will not fade so easily is the toll the scare has taken on the country's meat industry. Millions of animals will have to be destroyed by the end of the decade at a cost of millions of dollars.

The cattle on a British farm are virtually worthless these days. They are tainted by fear over mad cow disease.

"It's hard to convince the public that beef is 100 percent safe," farmer Peter Hart said.

In the past two weeks, the British beef industry has nearly collapsed. And farmers are not the only ones affected.

At Smithfield Meat Market, one of Europe's largest, the hunks of British beef on sale have few buyers.

"Beef is 50 percent of my sales and it just stopped. So for the two or three weeks it's been going on, I've got the same expenses with 50 percent less volume going through," Tony Humm said.

Some meat wholesalers are keeping up a brave front in the face of BSE-inspired panic which surfaced after bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was linked with the fatal human brain illness Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD).

"Within a few weeks from now, every single Sunday lunch will go back to roast beef because they will be sick of chicken and sick of fish," said Peter Martinelli at Smithfield Market Association.

The same whistling past the mad cow graveyard approach has been adopted by government ministers, despite revulsion against British beef at home and abroad.

"British beef is a product we can be proud of," said Douglas Hogg, the British agriculture minister.

Unfortunately for British farmers, butchers, and politicians, the European Union does not agree.

The EU will maintain a worldwide ban on British beef exports, despite strident objections from London.

"That ban is not justified. It is not based on sound scientific analysis. It is disproportionate, it should be removed," Hogg said.

But angry British voters may make the politicians pay for the fiasco. A poll Wednesday showed nearly three quarters of the public believes that the government knew there were risks in the beef but tried to hide them.

"They covered it up, tried to sweep it under the carpet and just let it come out now, and that's where there's such a hoo hah now," said one Londoner.

"All this time the government knew what was going on but they refused to act," said another.

The EU has agreed to help Britain with a multi-million dollar beef bailout. To help restore consumer confidence, all cattle over 30 months old will be slaughtered and burned, a total of nearly 5 million animals over the next six years.

While British politicians continue to bray with outrage over the terms of the EU beef agreement, taxpayers in other European countries are a little upset themselves.

The reason: They'll have to pay 70 percent of the cost of cleaning up Britain's meat mess, about $400 million a year for the next six years.

Related stories:

• EU agrees to fund slaughter of millions of British cattle
• France supports slaughter of British cattle if necessary
• Scientists urge caution in 'mad cow' panic
• EU issues worldwide ban on British beef exports

Related sites:

• European Union Home Page
• Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy [cowtown.org] (National Cattlemen's Association)
• A mad, mad, mad, mad world
• How Now Mad Cow?
• Mad Cow Disease (BSE) (Compuserve)

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