Tag: US Beef

Could we end up seeing a repeat of the 2008 mad cow riots in South Korea if Trump pressures the ROK to accept wider US beef imports?:

 The owner of a high-profile cow farm in South Gyeongsang Province is opposed to wider imports of U.S. beef. 

Byun Jung-il believes that allowing the import of some kinds of American beef would increase the risk of Korean consumers being exposed to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a zoonotic infection also known as mad cow disease. Korea has had a ban on the import of beef from U.S. cows aged 30 months or older in place since 2008, following widespread protests over the safety of such imports. 

The Donald Trump administration, amid ongoing tariff negotiations with Korea, is seeking to turn the tables by demanding that Seoul lift the ban. Both countries reached an initial agreement in late July to leave the bilateral livestock trade conditions intact. However, subsequent ministerial meetings between Seoul and Washington suggest that the issue remains on the table.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but who in the US is dieing from mad cow disease? ROK consumers should probably be more concerened about the hormones and antibiotics given to US cattle than mad cow disease. However, the ROK ranchers probably give their cattle the same shots.

If the Korean government changes this regulation will this lead to the Korean leftists to start another mad cow crisis like what happened in 2008?:

The U.S. nationwide cattlemen’s group asked the Trump administration Tuesday to help lift South Korea’s import ban on American beef from cattle aged 30 months or older, noting that similar curbs have been lifted in China, Japan and Taiwan.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) sent its comments to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer as the USTR has requested those comments to “assist in reviewing and identifying unfair trade practices, and initiating all necessary actions to investigate harm from non-reciprocal arrangements.”

The age restriction on U.S. beef was put in place in 2008 amid fears over mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the violent mad cow riots in 2008 has to rank up there as one of the most ridiculous anti-US protests ever in Korea. The 2000 Yongsan Water Dumping Incident protests are probably the only ones more ridiculous than the mad cow riots.

It will be interesting to see if the anti-US leftists try to bring back the US beef issue as a way to further drive a wedge between the US and the ROK:

The government said Thursday it has strengthened inspections on U.S. beef imports following the detection of mad cow disease in the United States.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs held a quarantine committee meeting to share information on the outbreak of mad cow disease in the U.S. and gather expert opinion. The ministry has boosted quarantine measures, increasing the ratio of the U.S. beef going through inspections to 30 percent from the current 3 percent.

The step follows the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announcing that an 11-year-old cow in Alabama was found to have an “atypical” variety of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease.

The USDA said that it is not the classic variety that is linked to Creutzfeldt Jakob disease in people. Cattle are known to be infected with “typical” BSE through feed contaminated with infectious prion agents, such as meat-and-bone meal containing protein derived from rendered infected cattle.

Atypical BSE, meanwhile, generally occurs in older cattle, usually over eight years old, and is known to arise rarely and spontaneously in all cattle populations.

The USDA emphasized that atypical BSE cases do not impact official BSE risk status recognition.

“Therefore, this finding of an atypical case will not change the negligible risk status of the United States, and should not lead to any trade issues,” it noted, making clear that it has no plan to stop beef exports.  [Korea Times]

Should not lead to any trade issues?  Tell that to an anti-American leftist:

Lawyers for a Democratic Society, an NGO, claimed that the government should stop U.S. beef imports “to protect the people’s health.” Korea can suspend imports under U.S. beef “import requirements” which the two countries agreed upon if it is necessary for public health and safety.

Lawyers for a Democratic Society are known in Korean as Minbyun. Minbyun has worked with other anti-US groups to go after USFK as well as try to get defectors returned to North Korea.

This news just causes me to smirk a bit considering the anti-US beef nonsense I saw happen in 2008:

US beef imports increased significantly as South Koreans turned away from their expensive local beef hanwoo, industry data showed on July 14.

US beef imports increased by 25.7 percent from January to May this year from the same period last year, to reach 61,062 tons, according to a report by the National Agriculture Cooperative Federation, better known as NongHyup.

South Korea became the third largest beef importer in the world during the period, after Japan and Mexico.   [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.

It appears that the leftist affiliated religious groups have been able to keep the extreme left wing thugs in check at least for last night as no violence was reported. The leftist groups claimed that half a million was going to turn out for their protests but judging by the pictures from the left leaning Voice of People website, they were probably able to get about 50,000-70,000:

View of beef protest at night looking towards City Hall.

The view of the protesters looking the opposite direction away from City Hall.

Yonhap News tends to confirm this with a report that says “tens of thousands” attended the protests. Even the Voice of People report put the number at 60,000 which is a far cry from the half a million claim from the protest organizers. Frankly I’m not impressed at all by the turn out.

I think this once again shows how the leftist movement in Korea has lost the support of the general Korean public. When they are able to turn out 250,000 like they did earlier in these protests that is when you know they are supported by the public but the turn out now shows it is just the usual leftist groups which have been augmented this week with their allies in the leftist religious groups.

The long lines of Korean citizens earlier in the week buying in mass quantities US beef is a sure indication that public opinion is quickly turning on these leftist groups:

The other thing to realize in regards to turn out for these protests is that these leftist groups bring out all their children in order to inflate their numbers as well as indoctrinate the next generation of leftist activists: