Howdy, all--
Darth Cheezer passed this item along. From today's SF Gate/SF
Chronicle, an AP story highlighting some cultural aspects of key food
safety issues.
As Glenn repeatedly reminds us, bless his persistent boots, it's in
the market that these issues ultimately get played out. When I read
stuff like this, it helps me understand why so many people fled to
the New World as soon as they could--to escape the weight of
centuries-long cultural sniping like the following.
Only to translate it into things like the (now defunct) Mets-Cubs
rivalry, or the hatred of drivers who come from adjoining states. :^)
Again, it's interesting that there's this strong focus on some French
farmers' use of sewage as fodder...while ignoring the Dutch, Belgian,
and German examples.
peace
misha
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
French and British at war again:
Whose beef is dirtier?
MAUREEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
Friday,
October 29, 1999
Breaking News Sections
(10-29) 01:16 EDT LONDON (AP) -- It may not
rank with the battles of Agincourt or Waterloo, but
it's war. At least that's what the tabloids say.
Britain and France, those centuries-old enemies and
allies, are at it again -- this time not over dynasties
and domain, but over who produces the dirtiest,
most unhygienic and dangerous-to-eat beef.
The dispute promises to be the most serious since,
well, since the issue was cheap British lamb in the
'80s.
Or perhaps since the historic 1994 opening of the
undersea Channel Tunnel that physically linked
Britain with France for the first time -- ushering in a
new era of Anglo-French misunderstandings.
This latest skirmish, while it began over beef, has
spread to other products as tempers flare higher
and higher.
French farmers have lit burning barricades in front
of British trucks at the tunnel entrance. ``England is
an island. It is easier to blockade than the
continent,'' declared farmers' leader Luc Guyau.
A British aristocrat with an ancient title, Lord
Cranborne, has banned French goods from the
tourist shop on his family estate, and the agriculture
minister is denying himself French delicacies. The
Daily Star tabloid is running a ``Just Say Non''
campaign, urging Britons to drink Californian,
Bulgarian, Australian or anyone, but anyone, else's
wine.
``The Frogs may have started it, but it's hard to
know which side of the Channel is behaving worse,''
Polly Toynbee wrote in London's upmarket,
pro-European Guardian newspaper.
And that's about as liberal and even-handed as it
gets.
The beef war began in August -- or rather entered a
new, more emotional phase -- when France refused
to join the rest of Britain's partners in the 15-nation
European Union in lifting a ban on British beef.
The ban was imposed in 1996 because of an
outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or
mad cow disease, which researchers linked to a
new strain of the fatal human brain ailment
Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.
France claims to have its own scientific evidence
that British beef is still unsafe. Having spent millions
cleaning up its act, Britain has made strong
objections, laced with suspicions that the French are
protecting their own farmers. An EU scientific
committee began meeting Thursday in Brussels,
Belgium, to examine the French claim. Officials said
they expected a ruling Friday.
Last week, in the sweetest of revenge for the
British, an EU report accused French rendering
plants of using sewage in livestock feed.
London-based tabloids went wild.
``Why oui hate 'em,'' cried the Daily Star, listing 20
reasons to dislike the French.
The top-selling Sun double-printed its front page
Thursday, once in English, once in French with the
headline over a burning barricade: ``We don't want
war but France is wrong.''
Britain's opposition Conservative Party wants an
immediate ban on imports of French meat.
But for Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair, seeking to
smooth over traditional British edginess with the
Continentals, it's proving a lot more difficult.
Braving accusations of being spineless, Blair said
that, despite the sewage report, the EU had ruled
French meat is not a danger to health and that any
ban would therefore be illegal. His position sounded
a shade tame this week in the tumult of shouting
Tory legislators in the House of Commons.
As ever, this dispute is tinged both with historic
overtones and the near-certainty that after it's over,
something else will crop up.
And though it's deadly serious, with livelihoods, free
trade and the British liking for French cuisine at
stake, some tongues are firmly in cheeks.
The Daily Star offered this among its reasons for
hating the French: ``Speak to them in fluent, faultless
French which you've painstakingly studied for three
years at night school, and they will stare at you
blankly as if you are a mound of smoldering donkey
dung.''
--============_-1270903800==_ma============
Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="us-ascii"
Howdy, all--
Darth Cheezer passed this item along. From today's SF Gate/SF
Chronicle, an AP story highlighting some cultural aspects of key food
safety issues.
As Glenn repeatedly reminds us, bless his persistent boots, it's in the
market that these issues ultimately get played out. When I read stuff
like this, it helps me understand why so many people fled to the New
World as soon as they could--to escape the weight of centuries-long
cultural sniping like the following.
Only to translate it into things like the (now defunct) Mets-Cubs
rivalry, or the hatred of drivers who come from adjoining states. :^)
Again, it's interesting that there's this strong focus on some French
farmers' use of sewage as fodder...while ignoring the Dutch, Belgian,
and German examples.
peace
misha
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<fontfamily><param>Times_New_Roman</param>French and British at war
again:
Whose beef is dirtier?
MAUREEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
Friday,
October 29, 1999
Breaking News
Sections
(10-29) 01:16 EDT LONDON (AP) -- It may not
rank with the battles of Agincourt or Waterloo, but
it's war. At least that's what the tabloids say.
Britain and France, those centuries-old enemies and
allies, are at it again -- this time not over
dynasties
and domain, but over who produces the dirtiest,
most unhygienic and dangerous-to-eat beef.
The dispute promises to be the most serious since,
well, since the issue was cheap British lamb in the
'80s.
Or perhaps since the historic 1994 opening of the
undersea Channel Tunnel that physically linked
Britain with France for the first time -- ushering in
a
new era of Anglo-French misunderstandings.
This latest skirmish, while it began over beef, has
spread to other products as tempers flare higher
and higher.
French farmers have lit burning barricades in front
of British trucks at the tunnel entrance. ``England
is
an island. It is easier to blockade than the
continent,'' declared farmers' leader Luc Guyau.
A British aristocrat with an ancient title, Lord
Cranborne, has banned French goods from the
tourist shop on his family estate, and the
agriculture
minister is denying himself French delicacies. The
Daily Star tabloid is running a ``Just Say Non''
campaign, urging Britons to drink Californian,
Bulgarian, Australian or anyone, but anyone, else's
wine.
``The Frogs may have started it, but it's hard to
know which side of the Channel is behaving worse,''
Polly Toynbee wrote in London's upmarket,
pro-European Guardian newspaper.
And that's about as liberal and even-handed as it
gets.
The beef war began in August -- or rather entered a
new, more emotional phase -- when France refused
to join the rest of Britain's partners in the
15-nation
European Union in lifting a ban on British beef.
The ban was imposed in 1996 because of an
outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or
mad cow disease, which researchers linked to a
new strain of the fatal human brain ailment
Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.
France claims to have its own scientific evidence
that British beef is still unsafe. Having spent
millions
cleaning up its act, Britain has made strong
objections, laced with suspicions that the French are
protecting their own farmers. An EU scientific
committee began meeting Thursday in Brussels,
Belgium, to examine the French claim. Officials said
they expected a ruling Friday.
Last week, in the sweetest of revenge for the
British, an EU report accused French rendering
plants of using sewage in livestock feed.
London-based tabloids went wild.
``Why oui hate 'em,'' cried the Daily Star, listing
20
reasons to dislike the French.
The top-selling Sun double-printed its front page
Thursday, once in English, once in French with the
headline over a burning barricade: ``We don't want
war but France is wrong.''
Britain's opposition Conservative Party wants an
immediate ban on imports of French meat.
But for Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair, seeking to
smooth over traditional British edginess with the
Continentals, it's proving a lot more difficult.
Braving accusations of being spineless, Blair said
that, despite the sewage report, the EU had ruled
French meat is not a danger to health and that any
ban would therefore be illegal. His position sounded
a shade tame this week in the tumult of shouting
Tory legislators in the House of Commons.
As ever, this dispute is tinged both with historic
overtones and the near-certainty that after it's
over,
something else will crop up.
And though it's deadly serious, with livelihoods,
free
trade and the British liking for French cuisine at
stake, some tongues are firmly in cheeks.
The Daily Star offered this among its reasons for
hating the French: ``Speak to them in fluent,
faultless
French which you've painstakingly studied for three
years at night school, and they will stare at you
blankly as if you are a mound of smoldering donkey
dung.''
</fontfamily>
--============_-1270903800==_ma============--
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