Japan to Stop All Imports of U.S. Beef [Archive]

Invictus

01-20-2006, 02:33 PM

羽之助

01-20-2006, 03:22 PM

Apparently there was a spine in the shipment. Way to go, U.S. meat packers.

alansmithee

01-20-2006, 03:47 PM

Gah. Mad cow isn't even really that bad. Humans don't have to worry about it if they don't eat nerve tissue from an infected animal (e.g. the brain). Certainly no reason to stop all beef imports... at worst they should have just tightened up inspection protocols a bit. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this is actually just a pretext for Japanese protectionism at the consumer's expense... wouldn't be the first time something similar has happened. :bang:

That was my thought too. It gives an excuse to protect their beef markets from competition.

Osucka

01-20-2006, 04:29 PM

Apparently there was a spine in the shipment. Way to go, U.S. meat packers.

This quote could have been a classic had it been a shipment of fudge instead of beef.

Masa the Masta

01-20-2006, 05:13 PM

This quote could have been a classic had it been a shipment of fudge instead of beef.

Hahaha, that made me laugh out loud. :clap:

Digital Masta

01-20-2006, 05:27 PM

Japan is way to anal about Mad Cow

jjcha

01-20-2006, 06:57 PM

Just to give some context, American beef has been banned in Japan for the last few years. It was a sad, sad, day when I had my last gyu-don at Matsuya. The ban was lifted just recently, but I guess it's back on.

There's still plenty of Australian beef in the country. Really it was only the gyu-don places that I noticed was hit by the ban.

Best regards,

-Jason

M.Laird

01-20-2006, 08:21 PM

Gah. Mad cow isn't even really that bad. Humans don't have to worry about it if they don't eat nerve tissue from an infected animal (e.g. the brain). Certainly no reason to stop all beef imports... at worst they should have just tightened up inspection protocols a bit. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this is actually just a pretext for Japanese protectionism at the consumer's expense... wouldn't be the first time something similar has happened. :bang:

As it happens, there was a recent mention in New Scientist of the fact that vCJD should have killed a lot more people than it did, given the danger of the disease. Scientists suspect that it's only some inherent genetic protection that has kept the death rate low.

Urban~Ninja

01-20-2006, 09:19 PM

This reminds me of when they first told me of Chicken Flu, my Grandma (Japanese) wouldnt touch Chicken for about 2 months, Japanese people are very worried about dieses i think.

Mechs

01-20-2006, 09:22 PM

I don't get it. We eat the same U.S. made beef as the Japanese correct? So if our beef is so bad to completely ban it, then why the hell are we still eating it :eyepop:?

Masa the Masta

01-20-2006, 09:26 PM

Because we're all just angry fat cows, who are a bunch of war mongers..

[/sarcasm]

Yeah no kidding. Isn't it that when the meat is thoroughly cooked, the disease is killed off?

RDClip

01-20-2006, 09:34 PM

So, where has Japan gotten it's beef for the last few years?

If I were American, I woundn't complain about this. When there was one case of mad cow in Canada, Alberta beef was banned for a while in USA.

Gestalt

01-20-2006, 09:48 PM

The extra ironic thing is that they've found mad cow disease in Japanese cows 3 or 4 times in the past couple of years, while banning imports from the US for detecting it just once..

alansmithee

01-21-2006, 01:04 AM

Because we're all just angry fat cows, who are a bunch of war mongers..

[/sarcasm]

Yeah no kidding. Isn't it that when the meat is thoroughly cooked, the disease is killed off?

Cooking doesn't really help. We talked briefly about this in another thread (but for the life of me, I don't know why). Mad cow is caused by a prion, which is a mutated protein. It opperates similarly to a virus, but they are different. And they're generally nastier.

Again, Mad cow is just an excuse to keep US beef out of Japan. The Japanese beef producers were probably complaining, so at the first opportunity they decided to reinstitute the ban. This isn't much different than what the US has done in the past, to be honest.

羽之助

01-21-2006, 01:19 AM

Sure, Japan is a bit too strict about American beef imports. But geez, after a two year ban lifts, you'd think the meat inspectors would have done a better job of making sure it met Japanese standards. Thanks to the oversight of one inspector, a huge market for American beef has been lost.
http://www.crisscross.com/jp/news/361833

Frankey-eh

01-21-2006, 02:06 AM

Invictus

01-21-2006, 03:01 AM

...a recent shipment was found to possibly contain material considered at risk for mad cow disease.

Read your articles more carefully, Rika. I've highlighted the points you should have taken in. Translation: We *might* have found something *related to* mad cow. The tone is distinctly sensational and uncertain. They haven't even had an assured case of contamination.

If you're worried about lives, don't eat beef. If I want to eat beef, knowing full well that there's a risk of mad cow, then I should accept the consequences. That doesn't give you the right to determine whether or not I can take that risk, however. I don't hear you going about telling people not to cross busy streets or eat fugu or fly airplanes or any other of a number of activities that carries with it a potential risk of injury or death.

I suggest you do some research on how many people die per year from mad cow as opposed to food poisoning, e. coli, trichinosis, or any other of a number of more common ailments that nevertheless do absolutely zip to prevent people from eating various things. No reason mad cow should be much different.

JusenkyoGuide

01-21-2006, 03:07 AM

That was my thought too. It gives an excuse to protect their beef markets from competition.
Which would make sense if Japan HAD a beef market. It doesn't, it cannot produce enough to meet demand so protectionism doesn't make any sense.

Now if we were talking Mad Rice Syndrom, THAT would make sense. ;)

No, Japan's ranches are too few, I'd say this is more due to just the general pickiness of the Japanese consumer and goverment nervousness over what one case in Japan would do poltically. Koizumi doesn't want to annoy Bush after all.

M.Laird

01-21-2006, 04:28 AM

I can't believe you guys are thinking about profit when HUMAN LIVES are at stake here.

By banning, we can limit the area contaminated, and get better control of the disease. Control will eventually lead to extermination.

Don't you WANT the disease gone? Or will you rather live in a disease-filled world as a millionaire? Even if we can't stop all disease, being exposed to 999 diseases are better than 1000.

But the importing of US beef wouldn't spread BSE, unless it was being fed to Japanese cattle. It could, if infected, potentially cause vCJD in people, but they're not going to pass it on to other people unless Japan takes up cannibalism and starts eating vCJD victims/

Digital Masta

01-21-2006, 04:49 AM

I mean how many people in the US actually have Mad Cow diseases as of right now. It can't be that many...if any right now. Our mo fuggin beef is fine...or as fine as beef can be.

KojiroTakenashi

01-21-2006, 08:38 AM

...And Az promptly dies, the source of his Power depleted.

alansmithee

01-21-2006, 09:26 AM

Which would make sense if Japan HAD a beef market. It doesn't, it cannot produce enough to meet demand so protectionism doesn't make any sense.

Now if we were talking Mad Rice Syndrom, THAT would make sense. ;)

No, Japan's ranches are too few, I'd say this is more due to just the general pickiness of the Japanese consumer and goverment nervousness over what one case in Japan would do poltically. Koizumi doesn't want to annoy Bush after all.

Does Japan have beef? Is it for sale? Then they have a beef market. If the native producers can't make enough to meet demand, it raises prices. Foreign beef lowers those prices by increasing supply. That's basic economics. So the reason for protectionism is to keep the price of beef high for native producers. This is a common practice for many agricultural goods.

JusenkyoGuide

01-21-2006, 12:32 PM

Does Japan have beef? Is it for sale? Then they have a beef market. If the native producers can't make enough to meet demand, it raises prices. Foreign beef lowers those prices by increasing supply. That's basic economics. So the reason for protectionism is to keep the price of beef high for native producers. This is a common practice for many agricultural goods.
Which would make sense, except the American market was over $1 billion and after the ban went into effect, Australia went right in and picked up the share America had lost. If it was true protectionism, Australia wouldn't have been allowed to do so.

No, it's damn finicky consumers.

羽之助

01-21-2006, 01:01 PM

What about the issue of trust?
America: Please, please, please let us sell you our beef. We promise it's safe.
Japan: Well ... ok. Just don't put any brain or spinal parts that might potentially have BSE causing agents into the shipment.
America: Ok.
Japan: Hey, you just put a spine in it. Ban for you.

You say that American beef is safe. It doesn't exactly bode well when inspectors can't follow a simple rule. As for the 'how many people in America even have Jakob-Crutzfield' argument, that's hypocritcal. After a case of BSE was found in Alberta, Canadian beef was banned in the States. We immediately culled herds and tightened safety measures, and nobody in Canada was ever diagnosed with the disease. Yet the product was still banned in the USA for quite a long time. Don't be upset when what you do to others happens to you.

Cybren

01-21-2006, 04:57 PM

Yeah, it is kind of hypocritical. I bet everyone here is a high ranking employee of the FDA.

KojiroTakenashi

01-21-2006, 10:06 PM

We just need to Gaijin Smash in response to the Nihon-punch!

OSUblake

01-23-2006, 06:16 AM

U.S. industry groups say the recent veal shipment, though it contained spine material, was from calves less than 6 months old, and that mad cow disease hasn't been found in animals that young.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/01/23/japan.us.beef.ap/

Does this justify a total ban?

羽之助

01-23-2006, 09:22 AM

Now, I'd be just as happy as anyone to see cheap U.S. beef at my grocery store and have real gyuudon at Yoshinoya again, buuuuut ...

If a total ban were not enforced, then even if U.S. inspectors sent stuff over it would just have to be reinspected again, at great cost. It's a huge cost to the consumer, I know, but health really should take precedence. I think it's a pretty big shock to the beef industry in the States, though. Maybe double inspection will be the only way to restore consumer confidence in U.S. beef sold in Japan. Until then, Australia will clean up.