It seemed like only yesterday that we were cheering Japan’s decision to reopen its markets to U.S. beef, much of it from Kansas. What a blow it was to see the door slam shut again so soon, after bone was found in a shipment of veal from a N.Y. plant. This might seem a small thing to Americans, but Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns was right to call it “an unacceptable failure.” As diplomats try again to repair the relationship, agriculture officials must redouble efforts to lock down the quality control procedures. When it comes to ensuring the world keeps its taste for U.S. beef, the customer is always right.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- gster on Open thread 11/23
- LonnythePlumber on Health care reform would save state money
- aldenrw on Let immigrants run
- Regular on Let immigrants run
- Regular on Too many exemptions
- Monkeyhawk on Let immigrants run
- Regular on Let immigrants run
- Politico on Too many exemptions
- XXX on Open thread 11/23
- XXX on Let immigrants run
10 Comments
The problem is that we allowed so many Japanese to earn American economics PhD’s over these past few decades.
The Japanese know that we’ve gutted our USDA’s enforcement of food safety laws and are relying on voluntary compliance instead. But just as OPEC found in the early 80s, the first (and only) cartel member to cheat earns enormous economic profits, at the expense of both the cartel and the cartel’s customers. The NY beef seller, too, knew that it could get paid market prices for calf spines if it cheated well. They knew, too, that there is no federal enforcement of such laws since the system relies almost exclusively on voluntary compliance.
So they cheated, probably thinking nobody would know.
But in Japan, where new car shoppers bring their rulers to the showroom floor so they can measure the consistency of the distance between door and door jamb for all American models, they got caught.
Japanese are legendary sticklers for quality. They rightly frown on the idea of being consumers of a beef importer (the US) which relies on voluntary complicance, since they know well how such voluntary systems disfunction throughout Asia.
If we had just thrown all the Japanese out of those PhD programs years ago then they’d *never* have known about the incentives to cheat under voluntary compliance regulatory systems, and voila, they’d have eaten veal spine and never known it.
Of course, it doesn’t take a PhD in economics to understand how humans react to financial incentives in situations like this one.
;)
Of course you are right, flike, that the regulatory agencies of our gov’t have been hindered in carrying out their missions–protection and enforcement.
This is the administration after all that invites the polluters into the Oval Office to help draft “energy policy.” The NRA boasted they would have an office in the West Wing when W was elected.
On the other hand, the Japanese are past masters at using niggling import regulations as a de-facto way to keep imports out. For instance, they used to require that every Louisville Slugger be individually inspected by their customs before it could be imported. The required that drugs could not be used in Japan until they had been tested ON JAPANESE people, as if they were another species.
But if one supplier cheats the company, you go to a new supplier. You don’t ban imports from the entire country.
The average farm in Japan is four acres. They cannot compete without huge gov’t subsidies and protections.
Good point about actions Japan uses to control the ways it interacts with the outside world. It’s also important to point out that mad cow disease isn’t an issue in beeves younger than 30 months; the beef Japan objects to was veal.
However, in a culture that puts such a premium on *shinto purity* (and high quality as a result – especially promises of high quality) it may not be so easy to ask the mainstream consumer to distinguish between young and old beeves. Especially when the US assured Japan that no spinal matter would appear in Japanese imports IF they would agree to stop banning US beef.
That said, I think Japan *has* chosen another supplier for their beef, and until things change it won’t be the US. If we stay consistently within your model, then Japan has merely chosen to stop imports from one supplier. It has not chosen to forego beef altogether.
Hmmm, interesting. Yup, you’re right.
They still import, just not from us, heh.
Japan was bullied into accepting American beef. You have to respect the Japanese. They were amassing billions of dollars in trade imbalance. So they took the profits and bought and built factories in the U.S., giving jobs to American workers.
They were afraid of mad cow disease. Some American beef producers wanted to test their own cattle at their own expense–and pass it on to the Japanese, who are willing to pay premium prices for high-quality stuff. The USDA prohibited this.Why? Because of a fear of panic, and liability. If it were found that there was mad cow disease in say tens of thousands of cattle, this would mean that a lot of Americans were already exposed. Bad news for the beef industry giants.
So it was decided to cover up the potential problem. If Americans get encephalopathy, it will be in 20 years. Don’t address a problem now if you can put it off and let the next generation of beef producers have to face it.
Ultimately, if cows are allowed to eat vegetable matter, as they naturally do, since they are herbivores, and aren’t artificially fed meat products, transforming them into carnivores, then the problem is solved. Feedlot owners may have to settle for smaller profit margins, or they may convince Americans to pay more for a product that won’t dissolve American consumers’ brains. The Japanese don’t want their brains dissolved. Anybody object to that?
“Some American beef producers wanted to test their own cattle at their own expense”(Their proposal was to test ALL of their beef)
Outlander, this scared the beef industry to death. They would have had to test all of their beef to remain competitive. Add to production costs to assure a safe product? What are we smoking here?!?!?
Many here know me. I’m proud of the friends I have made here and their respect for me. I am proud also to be so ever able to if not defeat , then at least informmy enemies.
I was absent these posts for some time. My Dad was ill. I’ll spare you the details and skip to the chase.
My father declined and died due to Creutzefeld-Jakob disease. This is the human form of “mad cow” disease. It occured in my Dad sporadically by genetics. It does occur in humans at a frequency ofabout one in one million. (Helluva a way my Dad won the “lottery”) But the disease that the Japanese don’t want our beef because of is essentially the same thing.
Now folks I speak from personal experence on this. This is one nasty, cruel, untreatable bug. The cause is what are called prions. I URGE you to learn more about them.
The same beef that the Japanese will not buy ( and that George bush said today he would encourage them to) is the same beef you and I eat! Our FDA standards are not as strict as the Japanese.
Believe me please in this. Mad cow disease has the potential in an unregulated beef industry to become a dreadful threat. Please educate yourselves in this.
“They cannot compete without huge gov’t subsidies and protections.”
Proudlib, that sounds like a description of u.s. farmers. We started the subsidy war and now we are whining about it.
“Some American beef producers wanted to test their own cattle at their own expense–and pass it on to the Japanese, who are willing to pay premium prices for high-quality stuff. The USDA prohibited this. Why? Because of a fear of panic, and liability.”
Outlander, bad enough that big beef didnt want to provide the Japanese what they want, but they didnt want any of us little guys to be able to provide it either, so they had to squash it. Seems like we either believe in the free market or we dont. :)
Interesting what Ford said yesterday about not “selling what we have but selling what the customer wants”. Big beef is the same way. Not only do they think the rest of the world is as stupid as the american consumer, but they will do their best to not make an alternative choice available. And who cares if a few little organic beef producers go broke along the way?
These big beef supporters are the same jerks that are using up the aquifer because all those big feedlots need irrigated grains, and packing plants use enormous amounts of water. Just what we should be doing in southwest ks.
SW ks is the second fastest growing economy in the state. It’ll be a big blow when the water runs out and the big beef industry cuts and runs, leaving the tax payers the mop-up bill. I’m tellin’ ya, Farm Bureau and the Corn Growers are part of the evil empire in ks.
JR, I am sorry about your dad. I had a neighbor die with the same thing, not related to beef. It happened in 1978 and it was a horrible death. You have my sympathy.
Thank you farmgirl.
I see you understand the nature of the threat this is.
Soemtimes…..alotta times, regulation is not just a good thing but a vital thingThe potential for a food borne version of this disease is very real. We ought all of us worry about what we are being fed. In a figurative and literal sense.
Please all, learn more about this problem. I wouldn’t wish my worst enemy the fate my father suffered and the painful journey it took us on.