Double Standards?!?!

Forty-five cows at a farm in northern Japan are suspected of having mad cow disease and will be destroyed, officials said Thursday.

Click to expand...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/3646769.html
I heard about this on NPR News on the way to work yesterday and watched the Japanese news last night and this morning to see if there was anything discussed about this topic/article but heard hardly a peep about the subject.
Imo Japan is employing a double standard in regards to the problems with the importing of US beef and claiming that it's beef herds throughout the country are safe and promoting Japanese Beef as being safer. I find that hard to believe with reports like this coming out and the fact that the mainstream media in is seemingly Japan making an active decision not to report the fact that Japanese beef as well, is possibly/probably tainted with the Mad Cow Disease.

Granted ONEcow was found to have the disease in the US, and that started the uproar here, and subsequent ban on US Beef imports, but there have been something like 20 to 40 cows here in Japan that have been tested and found to have the disease. Also the one cow that was found in the US originated from Canada. The first confirmed case of BSE here in Japan was way back in 2001 but there was no ban by the government on shipment of beef throughout the country as there has been with the imports of US beef.

Just another case of double standards imho....any comments or thoughts?

Hi, Hachiro-san!

The Japanese government has been guilty of double standards in many issues, and that applies to the US and other governments as well. There may be double standards involved in this issue as well, but the basic problem here lies not in the number of BSE incidences among cattle population in the Japan and North America. Japan accepts the fact that BSE cases will appear time and again, since the population has been affected once, until the disease completely disappears with removal of infected downers and cattlefeed control.

I don't think Japan thinks US is sloppy with BSE control--only that complete disappearance is not possible immediately and the US must take measures to avoid that. The issue is slaughtering method. The traditional Japanese method is to carve the meat off the bones, while sawing off chunks of meat with bone is common practice in the US. That is what is at issue today.

I apologize that I don't have much time to elaborate on my response (also because I'm not an expert on this), but I found something that is relevant to the Japanese argument here:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/Greger122403.cfm

Will I eat US beef when it comes in again? I don't think so, until US slaughterhouses change their methods...
However, I don't think Japan is able to control beef imports from the US--it may come in the form of patties and other processed foods.... I think we are already eating US beef in one form or another...

Just my two yen...

Konnichi ha epigene,

Very interesting link there, thank you! I was also unaware of that the slaughtering methods were different. Now I am curious to know why that makes such a difference in the handling of the meat.

However the beef industry in the US is huge in comparison to the Japanese industry and I often get the feeling that the government here is protecting the industry by overexagerating the depth of the problem.

The government here is known to subsidize the farming industry, however I don't know about the beef industry though, and it wouldn't suprise me at all if the government is being lobbied by the beef industry, to keep US beef out of the Japanese market. Look what happened in the past with the rice industry....well that is probably ancient history now.

I have numerous friends that own restraunts, izakaya's etc and they all want the US beef instead of Aussie or New Zealand beef. Japanese beef does not have the same flavor and texture. Also they comment they while "wagyu" is excellent meat, it is cost prohibitive to use on a daily basis in their business. They are very anxious to have the market opened again to imports of US beef.

Either way I will still eat beef, whether it be from the US or Japan.

Sounds like it's just a way for them to make more money selling their own beef. Dodgy.

News in Japan is this.
http://www.mainichi-msn.co.jp/shakai/jiken/disease/news/20060210ddm012040133000c.html
In Japan, it is coped about disposal of a cow of mad cow disease adequately.
The Japanese government is double standards obviously.
In Japan, all beef cattle is inspected.
And beef removes a specification danger part.
However, beef imported by U.S.A. is not inspected.
The Japanese government is double standard obviously.

But I also think in this case that the US beef exporters had already agreed to the higher Japanese inspection standards, and the company involved in the packing admitted they made a mistake in this case (including spinal bones with the meat, if I remember right).

So I think the case is more one of poor inspections on the US end. O focurse, you could also get into whether the risk warrants the inpection, but that is still a Japanese government call, as it their health standards we are talking about (not the US standards).

the saga of yoshinoya continues as well... i just eat it for the rice anyway

that was a hot hotlink also! much thanks!