Are Consumers Supposed to Ensure Own Food Safety?

It's belated but good to see Seoul and Washington announce additional steps to enhance the safety of imported U.S. beef.

Watching the social turmoil over the beef import issue the past week, however, one cannot help but wonder whether the officials couldn't have done so before angry consumers took to the street.

There may be few reasons for non-specialists to distrust most scientists' assurance that American beef is 99.99 percent safe from mad cow disease. But the difference among various importers of U.S. beef lies in how they deal with the remaining one-hundredth percent of the possibility. And the popular outcries, however emotional and simplistic they might sound, are nothing but rebukes on Seoul's failure in this process.

The only difference between last July when Korea suspended imports and now is the World Animal Health Organization's (OIE) ruling that America is a mad cow disease-controlled country and a recommendation ― not obligation ― on foreigners to resume imports. It was up to importers to negotiate the imported cattle's age and cuts as well as inspection procedures, for which other countries, such as Japan and Taiwan, still have talks under way. Seoul, however, lifted all restrictions on cattle parts and ages and even abandoned the last safety measure of stopping shipments if and when the dreaded disease recurs in America.

There was of course one more difference from last year ― the April 19 summit between Presidents Lee and Bush.

Even more problematic were the words and behavior of Korean officials after the talks' settlement. At a joint news conference to calm public sentiment, it was as if these officials were speaking on behalf of the U.S. government, stressing there would be no safety problem at all and there is no chance of renegotiation, only adding fuel to consumers' fury.

Some officials asked why the same Koreans who ate U.S. beef while touring in America would say no to it back home. Do they mean all non-vegetarian tourists should carry homegrown beef when they go abroad? Others acknowledged that it was hard for Korea, not a mad cow disease-controlled country, to blame the products from a disease-controlled country. But they should have known that it was not a negotiation to export Korean beef to America.

Politicians in the governing Grand National Party and conservative media outlets attack the ongoing Internet impeachment campaign and candlelit vigils as anti-American groups' instigation. It's true these moves are going a bit too far, but most ― if not all ― of their chants were not against the U.S. but against the Lee administration, which is a little more than two months into office. This has little to do with ideology or anti-Americanism, unless President's Lee's excessive compliance with the U.S. backfires.

In this era of shared information, politicians and bureaucrats should no longer try to coerce, guide or even persuade the people but tell the truth as it is and seek their understanding.

The public's outrage is not about the chances of the mad cow disease but about the way these officials are handling the issue.

Again, Seoul only has to redress the deal from a purely public health viewpoint and supplement it in every possible way it can.