BBC and Lee Sae-jin Bring Truth to US Beef Issue

» by GI Korea in:

The BBC has an excellent article today that destroys the Korean left’s complaints against US beef:

Some of the claims made about the risks of mad cow disease are certainly difficult to substantiate.

South Korea’s marching citizens have been worried onto the streets by widely circulated rumors that American consumers do not eat beef from cattle aged over 30 months, and that large quantities of this more dangerous, older meat will flood into Korea.

It was with reference to these fears that the South Korean government suspended the import agreement this week, saying it wanted 30-month and older cattle removed from the deal.

But according to statistics from the US beef industry, 18% of cattle slaughtered in the US for human consumption is above, in many cases well above, 30 months of age.

The meat from these animals, considered perfectly safe, is ground into beef for burgers and other such delights.

Americans, it seems, don’t just eat 30-month-old cows, they eat them in vast quantities.

And according to Joe Schuele from the US National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, “research shows that before exports were stopped in 2003, less than 2% of the total beef we sent to South Korea came from cattle aged over 30 months”.

It is hardly a flood. [BBC via TMH]

Oh it only gets better:

But central to the South Korean government’s willingness to open its ports is the certification of US beef hygiene standards by the World Organization for Animal Health.

According to this intergovernmental food-safety body, the US removes risky material from slaughtered animals, conducts adequate testing and has feed policies that control the risk and make its meat safe for export.

South Korea has yet to supply enough information to the World Organization for Animal Health to allow an assessment of its own mad cow risk to be carried out.

I have been saying all this for the past week, US beef is safter then Korean beef. It is an indisputable fact that means little to these people. Notice this is the most detail in any article by a western news agency about this issue and also notice it is not written by a Korean correspondent like other western news agency articles.

For those who continue to say this is not about anti-Americanism I give you this:

“The essence of the beef protests is anti-American,” says Keun Park, President of the Korea-America Friendship Society.

“The left-wing media has instigated the feeling that there is a good reason to fear US beef.”

Here is the response from the leftists behind the protests:

Hahm Sung-deuk, professor of presidential studies at Korea University, does not agree that the beef protests are motivated by anti-American sentiment, but he admitted that outsiders may well be baffled as to why it has become such a serious issue.

“People have become gradually disappointed with President Lee,” he says. “There have been a series of errors.”

One of the biggest ones, he said, was to give the appearance of capitulating to American political interests.

So these protests are because of the “appearance of capitulating to American political interests” even though it is an indisputable fact that the complaints against President Lee are false and the FTA is in the best interests of Korea. Where was Hahm Sung-deuk when Korea capitulated to Chinese political interests during the Great Garlic War? The sheer hypocrisy of the Korean left just further proves this is about anti-Americanism.

Here is my favorite quote from the article from the one man show of Lee Sae-jin:

Not all South Koreans agree with the candlelit protesters who continue to march through the streets of Seoul each night.

Lee Sae Jin, a 25 year old university student, bravely held his own, one-man protest in favour of US beef imports.

He was soon shepherded away by a policeman, led off through the rather angry crowd that had gathered to read his posters.

“We are an exporting nation,” he had written.

“We are creating the fear of mad cow disease in our own minds. Candlelights should be used to brighten the darkness, not burn down our own homes.”

Lee Sae-jin is the man. He is only one person but I know plenty of Koreans that think just like him but they don’t want to protest because they have things to do like work their jobs unlike the college students and professional leftist agitators behind these protests.

If anyone knows who Lee Sae-jin, they should buy him the biggest US steak available on the blackmarket.