3/13: Burning steer

[Undertoad]

These cows are being destroyed because the entire British beef industry is in a panic over hoof and mouth disease.

[Chewbaccus]

<sigh> Lousy England. I'm so glad that Scotland finally got their own Parliament. That part of the island is already halfway down the tubes. The Scots were right to cut ties when they did.

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I found this just after I submitted the post. The livestock's already spread to France. Here's the story

I'm happy, because it hit France first, that this is going to help further pull the European Union into the crapper. Last I read, the Euro in general was worth $0.85 against the U.S. dollar, expected to bottom out at $0.75. When I told my friends that, we immediately made plans to buy the majority of Europe with the change in out pockets.

President of France: "And here we have the world-famous Notre Dame cathedral, pillar of faith in all of France."

Me: "I'll take it. Here's $20. Keep the change."

And in such a manner, my own personal empire begins.


~Mike

[Edited by Chewbaccus on 03-13-2001 at 11:39 AM]

[elSicomoro]

I wonder if God is punishing Great Britain for their years of colonialism.

The French are next...although their people get pissy mad at a food tax, then revolt in the streets. Perhaps it started there first.

(Apologies to those of French or British descent...wait a minute, I have French in me...ah, forget it.)

[tw]

Originally posted by sycamore
I wonder if God is punishing Great Britain for their years of colonialism.

The French are next...although their people get pissy mad at a food tax, then revolt in the streets. Perhaps it started there first.
[/b]

A shortage of news is evident. Hoof and Mouth disease did not start in Britian. It first started some years ago in India. From there it hopped to S Korea and the Eastern Middle East - especially Saudia Arabia and Iran. It only just recently appeared in Britian and may have expanded in Netherlands, France, and Argentina from other countries - not from Britian. How would be know? Well how good are the other equivalents to our Dept of Agriculture and FDA? Hoof and Mouth could have been there for some time.

Hoof and Mouth disease is a virus that is easily transported by man or machine. It is not easily destroyed even by fire. Up to now, I have not been able to learn much from medical friends, but a retired farmer notes that Hoof and Mouth vaccines have existed for decades.

Ironically these same Europeans were demonstrating against GM foods while their own food systems had no oversight. In France, livestock are fed their own feces. Europe has no FDA oversight equivalent. Any regulation is mostly controlled politically - not by bureaucrats. Furthermore Mad Cow Disease studies were controlled (hindered) by politicans.

Remember the Coke contamination? Again no government authorities to investigate mystery sickness. Coke claimed one outbreak was from cans provided by a supplier to one factory and from bad carbonated water provided to another factory by a Scanadavian supplier. Same symptoms from two different suppliers to two different factories in two different countries? No government oversight - just Coke's internal investigation. How long was that going on before news reporters discovered the sickness?

With such poor food, drug, and farm oversight - even no effective information collection agency - the Europeans were ripe for food problems as well as their slow responses. Combine this shortage of accurate information in Europe with an international lack of knowledge of the original India outbreak - only now we have a major hype story.

[Undertoad]

It turns out there was an even better image of the burning, so here it is as a bonus.