Vast majority of Japanese back US beef ban

[techs]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060131/hl_afp/japanpoliticsustradehealthmadcow
An overwhelming majority of Japanese support the decision to ban US beef imports for violating a food safety agreement and most want tighter restrictions if imports resume, a new poll revealed.

Some 87 percent backed the new ban, which was imposed only a month after US beef was allowed to return to the market, against eight percent who opposed it, said the Asahi Shimbun poll of 1,915 Japanese adults.

However, people were sharply divided over the original decision to lift the embargo, with 48 percent believing it was too early against 45 percent who thought it was appropriate.

Under intense pressure from its closest ally, Japan, formerly the top overseas market for US beef, in December resumed imports, which were suspended in 2003 after a mad-cow case was discovered in a herd in Washington state.

On January 20, however, Japan found that a US shipment that arrived near Tokyo contained spinal columns, which are forbidden as a precaution against mad-cow disease, and imposed a new ban.

The opposition called Monday on farm minister Shoichi Nakagawa to resign after he admitted he never sent teams to the United States to inspect beef as he promised.



I think its time the US beef producers bite the bullet. If we want to sell beef in Japan we need to meet their standards.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Exactly.

The US has no hesitation applying its own higher standards to imported foodstuffs, Japan has the same right.

 

[Moonbeam]

I also will not buy American beef that is not certified grass fed not because I actually feel there is anything more than an infinitesimal risk, but because the US refuses to do the kind of inspection the Japanese do. If it's dollars over people then I won't feed that thinking with my dollar.

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: techs

I think its time the US beef producers bite the bullet. If we want to sell beef in Japan we need to meet their standards.

First, I'm a farmer, not a rancher. I've never owned a cow, pig, or sheep.

It's the packers, not the beef producers that will be doing the checking. I've said before that if it's what the American consumers want then I don't have a problem with it. I'm all for creating jobs in the US that can't be outsourced.

On the other hand, it seems like an awful expense for the risk involved. Especially considering if you folks knew about all the anti-biotics and growth hormones feed cattle get. I personally would worry more about that crap.

 

[Proletariat]

Poster above, do you grass feed your cows?

 

[Remy XO]

Japenese eat beef?

 

[EndGame]

I've had the pleasure of being a "weekend farmer" of sorts and have had a few head of cattle for many years now. My small herd is mostly grass fed supplemented by corn, especially the steers. I even butcher my own beef with the help of friends and family and we love it.

IMHO the problem is not the "farmers", it is the corporate "cattle floors" the same way with the corporate "hog floors". The objective in these operations is to get the steers as big as they can as quickly as they can and much of this is done, as mentioned above, with growth hormone injections and supplemented foods.

The downfall of raising cattle came when the big corporate outfits got in the game. You are contrated for X number head and you have a deadline when X number head must be ready for pickup to their slaughter houses. As a contractor it is your job to assure you have what you contract for ready by the expected date, at the expected weight no matter what it takes. I've been on a couple of these operations run by people I know and that's what keeps me butchering my own. The cattle are so shot up with steroids they make Hulk Hogan in his prime steroid use look like a 90 lb. weakling.

It's the corporations forcing these "farmers" hands because to make money in cattle in this day and age it's like anything else, you either "play the game" or get the hell out. They call the shots and get their contracts filled or penalties abound.

 

[Passions]

No one wants to eat big, round-eye, American beef!!! kawaii cows only.

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

Our ag system is all messed up.

We pay people to grow crops they cannot sell (corn).

We pay people NOT to grow crops (grain).

We pay people b/c they USED to grow a crop (tobacco).

We even pay people to grow a crop that we could get much cheaper from somewhere else (sugar).

Small farmers struggle from one growing season to the next get just enough help to "maybe" survive. While ADM and the other agribusiness collect HUGE subsidies on top of their regular profit.

As for livestock, they are pumped full of antibiotics . . . not for disease prevention mind you. They get antibiotics for the same reason they get growth hormone and steroids (yes, those kinds of steroids). It makes 'em big . . . quickly.

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: Proletariat
Poster above, do you grass feed your cows?

I don't have any cows. My brother ranches, but he just has a cow/calf operation, which means he maintains a herd of cattle and calfs them out every year. In the fall he sells his calfs at the sale barn to people who fatten them for market. They probably weigh an average of 750 pounds when he sells them and they fatten them to 1100 pounds or more before they're ready to butcher.

I don't know of anybody around here who grass fattens cattle. It turns winterhere and the grass is all dead by Thanksgiving so grtass fattening is not really an option for us, maybe they do that in Kansas or Oklahoma? If you want to fatten them up around here you have to start pumping the corn to them.

The bottom line is how fast you can get them to the weight the market is wanting.