By I have been wondering about the quality of Korean beef considering most of the cows I see in Korea are cooped up in pins and receive very little exercise:
KBS’ “News Issue Ssam” news program recently showed a sick cow being sold on the black market and heading to a slaughterhouse. According to a livestock trader in an accompanying interview, the slaughtered cow would be sold for human consumption. The program also said Korean cattle farmers imported feed that contained meat and bones until 2004, and it’s uncertain where this feed — the type believed to be the source of mad cow disease — was used. The producers said the purpose of the program was to show that there is no 100-percent assurance that Korean beef, or hanwoo, is completely safe for consumption.
The contents of this program are probably true. Everyone knows there are weaknesses in Korea’s food safety monitoring system. Korea has not registered to be classified by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) on the safety of its cattle against mad cow disease, so we don’t know just how safe our beef really is. [Chosun Ilbo]
The fact that Korean beef farmers are not registered with the world wide body that monitors the safety of the beef industry is proof that US beef is safer then Korean beef. What do the Korean farmers have to hide?
4:40 am on May 20th, 2008 1
I bet the info doesn’t make a dent.
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5:38 am on May 20th, 2008 2
It has never been about mad cow or safe food. America and American things are hated in Korea.
Koreans see nothing wrong with eating filthy dogs, and will stand in a line to buy past the experation date black market US food, but at the same time, a Korean can’t pass up the chance to stick it to the Americans.
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6:43 am on May 20th, 2008 3
American Cattle Farmers are paid at the most $1.30 per pound for cattle on the hoof 16-30 months old and about $1.55 per pound for younger cattle.
Korean Cattle Farmers are paid $4.50 per pound for cattle on the hoof (I don’t know how old the cattle are).
If I’m the only person selling apples and I get $4.50 per apple and someone comes along and sells apples for $1.50 – I guess I would be mad too and say their apples have a variant of Japanese-B-encephalitis.
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8:19 am on May 20th, 2008 4
My wife was riding in a taxi and the driver started talking about the US beef issue. He more or less said the same things that most of us have talked about. If people don’t want it, don’t eat it. My wife explained her frustration that people in her workplace talked about the dangers of US beef, even while she pointed out that there was not US beef here, yet, and the Avian flu was a much closer and credible threat.
The driver smiled and said not to fret. He said he knew a lot of people that felt the same way they did, they just kept quiet because they know they are right. Only the misguided ones are loud because they want to push their lie so that their own lie seems less false.
It made her day. And when she told me, I grilled us a steak dinner with a couple of Miller Lites.
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5:01 pm on May 20th, 2008 5
[...] Click here to read more. Click here to return to Korea Click here to return to MySpace News. [...]
10:18 pm on May 20th, 2008 6
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5:08 pm on June 6th, 2008 10
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