The uproar over the resumption of Korean imports of US beef has only been growing since I last wrote about it. There is tremendous opposition from lawmakers and civic groups.
On my bus ride down to Erma's parents' place yesterday, live legislative hearings were showing on the bus TV the whole way. The hearings were supposed to be about the proposed Korean-US Free Trade Agreement, but everyone just talked about beef.
Apparently when imports were banned by the last government, a huge amount of American beef was sitting in Korean warehouses. Instead of destroying it or sending it back, it just sat there frozen. So now the plan is to release it. Apparently the meat contains bone, spinal column, and other cow parts that are acknowledged to be the most dangerous parts for spreading mad cow disease.
With the new agreement, all that meat was going to be released immediately. It's causing a furor here, especially because the previous government issued all these reports about how dangerous that meat was. There have been large candle-light vigils protesting the beef, attended by tens of thousands of people in Seoul.
The intense opposition has led the government to agree to a delay of about a week. But so far it still looks like the beef will be released into the market. (The delay does mean I won't accidentally eat any of it before I go.) I'm highly sympathetic to the Koreans who are opposed to this agreement. I don't want to be eating bone-laden American beef either, and I think they have good reason to be concerned.
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