 Consumer organizations criticize farm minister's anti-BSE testing remark The Japanese agriculture minister's remark that it is senseless to call for BSE-tests on all beef cattle has aroused criticism among consumers. The Consumers Union of Japan and the National Liaison Committee of Consumers' Organizations on February 28 demanded that Shimamura Yoshinobu, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries minister, retract the remark and apologize for it. They pointed out that Shimamura's remark was intended to help resume beef imports from the United States. These consumer groups argued that Shimamura is not qualified as an agriculture minister because he puts priority on diplomatic relations with the U.S. over Japanese people's health and food safety at a time when the need is for the ministry to reinforce preventive measures against BSE. At the Lower House Budget Committee meeting on February 25, Shimamura in reply to a Komei Party representative said, "It is senseless to call for BSE tests on all beef cattle. It's no longer appropriate to cling to such a position." Japanese people have been very sensitive about food safety because just recently a patient of CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) died for the first time in Japan and the 15th BSE-infected cow was found. Late last year, Stanley Ben Prusiner, an American neurologist whose discovery won the 1997 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine, stated that the best and most rational way of BSE-testing is the screening of all cows. (end) |