Photo from the New York Times: Coffee, Tea or Meat?It's amazing what you can learn when you sign up for a news alert. I've been getting daily updates on beef media and I'm fascinated by a bovine brouhaha being stirred up in South Korea.
According to this Voice of America article, South Korea banned U.S. beef imports in 2003 after a U.S. cow died of sponge brain. Just last month, South Korean president Lee Myung-bak promised our Prez Bush that he'd lift the ban, noting that the U.N. says the beef is safe and so does Bush. (Bush, of course, showing conservative compassion as number one advocate for the health and safety of the South Koreans.) Lee's peeps ain't havin' it, though; protests have ensued, with government officials being challenged to "test-eat" imported beef on TV (officials have refused, so far). VOA says last week, "a prominent South Korean TV documentary asserted Koreans possess a special gene that makes them more susceptible to mad cow disease." Wha?
But apparently, we're talking big Won here -- according to this article, before the ban, South Korea was the third largest market for U.S. beef imports in the world, to the tune of $850 million. Tiny South Korea! Third largest! That's a lot of BBQ.
If kalbi, bulgogi, bibimbap, and sul long tang weren't evidence enough that Koreans take their beef seriously, check this out: students held candlelight vigils in protest of lifting the beef ban. Can you imagine U.S. teenagers getting that up in arms over, oh, I don't know, salmonella in their dorm food?
Beef is a religion in S. Korea. Needless to say, my parents are horrified that I'm trying to go veg.