Word: meats
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...officials insist the ban is nothing more than a regulation designed to protect the public health. They see the law as nondiscriminatory, since all nations exporting meat to Europe must meet the same requirement. Such major beef exporters as Argentina, Australia, Brazil and New Zealand have agreed to ship only hormone-free meat to the Community, even though they may agree with the U.S. that the restriction is too broad...
...weight of about 1,000 lbs., the hormone treatments (cost per implant: about $1) save the cattlemen approximately $20 per head, which can be the difference between profit and loss. Producers maintain that the hormones not only help keep U.S. beef prices down but also turn out the leaner meat preferred by consumers nowadays...
...scientific evidence has been found that such hormones, administered properly, cause adverse health effects in people who consume the meat. Yet E.C. officials have brushed aside U.S. contentions that the hormones are safe. "Where there is doubt, there must be a total ban to protect consumers," declared Bart Staes, a spokesman for a group of European environmental and political parties that oppose hormone use. The E.C. established a scientific panel to study the issue, but disbanded the group before it could report its findings...
Many American beef growers maintain that European meat is more dangerous than the U.S. product. While conceding that some American feedlot operators have been cited for improperly administering approved hormones, the U.S. growers point out that the E.C. ban has fostered a thriving black market among European cattlemen in older, more dangerous compounds like DES. Some growers inject their herds with illicit drugs to cut costs. Last week a Belgian consumer magazine reported a survey of 500 butcher shops in which 25% of the hamburger samples tested contained DES and other illegal chemicals...
...trade officials contend that the E.C. ban is motivated in large part by protectionism, since European beef producers are raising more cattle than they can sell locally or abroad. E.C. nations added 140,000 tons of excess beef to meat-locker stockpiles last year, bringing the total surplus to more than 723,000 tons, or nearly two months of European consumption...