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KBS' "News Issue Ssam" news program recently showed a sick cow being sold on the black market and heading to a slaughterhouse. According to a livestock trader in an accompanying interview, the slaughtered cow would be sold for human consumption. The program also said Korean cattle farmers imported feed that contained meat and bones until 2004, and it's uncertain where this feed -- the type believed to be the source of mad cow disease -- was used. The producers said the purpose of the program was to show that there is no 100-percent assurance that Korean beef, or hanwoo, is completely safe for consumption.
The contents of this program are probably true. Everyone knows there are weaknesses in Korea's food safety monitoring system. Korea has not registered to be classified by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) on the safety of its cattle against mad cow disease, so we don't know just how safe our beef really is.
But such programs can immediately trigger suspicions that hanwoo may come from infected cows. The images that prompted the groundless fears over U.S. beef were of American cows that couldn't stand up. But the disease that causes that symptom is different from mad cow disease. If hanwoo cattle showed the same symptoms, then the chances of mad cow disease would still be negligible.
The topic of food safety is a very sensitive one and even small incidents can lead to drastic drops in sales. Already, beef restaurants are said to be losing a lot of customers. Images and sounds related to food shown on TV can have an enormously destructive impact. The public will end up wondering what to do if even hanwoo is seen as dangerous to consume. The TV companies need to think about the impact they can have on society and whether this is reasonable.
Out of a global population of 6.7 billion people, not a single person this year has come down with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which is the human form of mad cow disease. Last year, only one person -- a Briton -- contracted CJD. It is right to prepare for all possibilities, but overdoing it can lead to problems.
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