By It is interesting how people’s pocketbooks ultimately have a way of overcoming irrational paranoia:
South Korea’s supermarket chains resumed selling U.S. beef Thursday, nearly five months after the government lifted an import ban imposed over fears of mad cow disease.
South Korea banned American beef in 2003 after a case of mad cow disease was discovered in the U.S. The government lifted that ban in June — a move that sparked weeks of violent protests by South Koreans concerned about the health risks of eating U.S. meat.
U.S. beef has been available in small butcher shops and some restaurants, but major supermarkets and larger restaurants have been shying away from offering U.S. beef out of concerns of possible public backlash.
On Thursday, however, large discount department stores including E-mart, Home Plus and Lotte Mart began selling U.S. beef at 250 local branches, saying customers are demanding cheaper meat, according to the Korea Chainstores Association.
Small supermarkets and restaurants also are expected to resume selling U.S. beef soon, spokesman Ko Sang-bum said. [Star Tribune]
Of course the usual suspects were not happy about this however few of them could actually be mobilized to do anything about it:
About 20 activists staged a rally in front of a Seoul E-mart store, chanting anti-U.S. beef slogans voicing their fears of mad cow disease. There were no immediate reports of violence.
“It’s sly of them to start selling mad cow beef and exploit consumers who are being pressured by the economic downturn,” said Jeon Sung-do, secretary general of the Alliance of National Farmers’ Associations. “We will continue to stage protests outside shops that sell U.S. beef.”
Maybe the mad cow protesters should go recruit some Australians to go protest with them since they too are being adversly effected by the introduction of US beef into Korea:
Sales of U.S. beef have outpaced Australian imports on their first day on sale at South Korea’s large discount outlets, industry sources said Friday.
The country’s top three retailers said combined sales of U.S. beef reached 50.1 tons on Thursday, 33 percent higher than the 37.3 tons originally anticipated. [Yonhap]
Has there ever been an issue that ultimately ended up being much to do about nothing then this US beef issue?
11:55 am on November 29th, 2008 1
Fickle hypocrisy.
2:29 pm on November 29th, 2008 2
"Has there ever been an issue that ultimately ended up being much to do about nothing then this US beef issue?"
Only if it were just about US beef or anti-Americanism. I know you don't like to acknowledge it but the beef protests were in large part a pretext to engage in anti-LMB actions. They were pretty effective at the end of the day.
The volte-face that you're seeing should be a pretty good indicator of that.
3:37 pm on November 29th, 2008 3
The number of people hurt by tainted US beef is ZERO. That means more people have been injured from Mad Cow protesting than from Mad Cow beef. Kind of ridiculous, isn't it?
4:56 am on November 30th, 2008 4
#2: I'll go one step further: the protests were the beginning of a formalized DPRK insurgency through anarchy. Nothing honorable about them.
9:04 am on November 30th, 2008 5
"…the protests were the beginning of a formalized DPRK insurgency through anarchy. Nothing honorable about them."
Any proof? And no some ham-handed, connecting-the-dots, guilt by association song and dance isn't going to suffice. I want to see some recording, testimony or documentation that the security services of the DPRK were ACTIVELY supporting the beef protestors.
3:32 pm on November 30th, 2008 6
The funny thing is, when I went to Emart this past weekend, the US beef was significantly more expensive than the Aussie stuff.
3:39 am on December 1st, 2008 7
I think it's known to everyone on the planet that groups like the Hanchongryun and PSD (Peoples Solidarity for Participatory Democracy) are in bed with Pyongyang. We've even discussed it here:
http://rokdrop.com/2005/05/30/it-must-be-summer-t…
http://rokdrop.com/2008/06/16/anti-us-groups-link…
There have already been a number of arrests since this summer's protests, so the truth will come out.
I'm not so naive as to think that the violent protesters we saw this summer were merely vegetarians run amuck.
5:01 pm on February 15th, 2009 8
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?a…
U.S. beef imports to Korea rise 127%
February 16, 2009
Korea was the fourth largest importer of U.S. beef in the world last year, according to report by the U.S. Meat Export Federation released Saturday.
This is a rapid climb in ranks considering that imports of U.S. beef to this country started only in late June last year.
In the last six months, Korea has shipped in 57,267 tons of U.S. beef. By import volume, this is a 128 percent surge on total beef imports in 2007.
Korea banned U.S. beef from entering the country in 2003 after an outbreak of mad cow disease in the U.S.
The task of resuming U.S. beef imports wasn’t easy. After newly elected President Lee Myung-bak promised to lift the ban during talks with former U.S. President George W. Bush in the U.S., nationwide protests erupted.
Only after the Korean government made several revisions to the beef import regulations, including strengthening of sanitary procedures, was the ban lifted.
The biggest importer of U.S. beef in 2008 by volume was Mexico at 396,065 tons. Canada trailed behind with 154,798 tons, while Japan was the third largest importer with 74,119 tons.
In addition, USMEF forecast that U.S. beef imports to Korea will probably speed up because major department stores here plan to start selling U.S. beef later this year.
U.S. beef is currently on sale at some of the country’s leading discount stores. Its advantage over other imported beef, including Australian, is its lower price.
5:44 pm on February 15th, 2009 9
Simon, the U.S. beef is cheaper at Lotte Mart.
It’s so tasty and so much less expensive than Korean beef. I will let you all know if I come down with a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
2:01 am on May 19th, 2009 10
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