The WSJ Reported April 11,2008 "Seoul Unlikely to End U.S. Beef Ban"

U.S. beef exported to South Korea is off close to 250,000 metric tons since the U.S. mad cow issue was disclosed at the end of 2003. There is no excuse for allowing these sales to slip away given the well documented history of BSE in Europe and the rest of the world. There has been a simple solution to solving this problem which the Canadian government adopted last year. Specifically, it would be for the U.S. to adhere to currently approved worldwide guidelines in the removal of waste and high risk materials from entering animal feed.

Why don't we have this on the books now?
It is simple, the U.S. agencies responsible (FDA and USDA) are both in a difficult position to make such simple decisions, as they promote sales but also regulate food safety. This leaves them in conflict, which means their action of doing nothing continues hurting what was one our most admired industries, meat processing. The influence over the FDA and USDA by a few powerful special interest groups will result in putting the industry at further risk to future liabilities. Two recent events, last year's pet food recall and the recent Hallmark beef recall, illustrates this vulnerability.

What is the impact of this conflict of interest?
Billions of dollars in lost sales. What is equally concerning is that once the sales void is filled from other countries that do not allow cannibalism, it will then be very difficult to get back those lost sales, costing ranchers and meat processors important jobs in the U.S.