(JP) Ministry slammed over BSE

[Guest guest]

http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2002032500232.html

 

Ministry slammed over BSE

 

The Asahi Shimbun

25 March 2002

 

The agriculture ministry is blasted for its handling

of last fall's mad cow disease outbreak in a draft

report compiled by an investigative panel commissioned

by the farm and health ministers.

 

The draft says the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry

and Fisheries sided more with livestock farmers than

consumers and that this stance led to the slow

response to overseas reports about the dangers of

bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

 

The report also slams Diet members, particularly those

belonging to the Liberal Democratic Party, who formed

a farm lobby and worked in partnership with the

agriculture ministry in seeking subsidies for farmers.

 

 

A final report is expected to be submitted to

agriculture minister Tsutomu Takebe and health

minister Chikara Sakaguchi on April 2.

 

The draft covers the response by the two ministries

from the spread of BSE in Britain in 1990 up until the

first report of the disease in Japan last September.

 

The draft says the agriculture ministry should have

advised the government to pass a law banning the use

of meat and bone meal after the World Health

Organization in 1996 issued a warning naming the

product as a possible cause of BSE. In fact, all the

ministry did was to take more lenient measures-a move

the draft describes as a ``momentous policy error.''

 

The draft also blames a legal and administrative

system that it says does not match the needs of an

advanced industrial nation.

 

``Japan's laws and systems are still heavily

influenced by a climate of protecting producers and

belittling consumers that is a relic of a time when

food was scarce,'' the report states. ``There is a

lack of thinking about the food chain from the

livestock farm to the dinner table.''

 

A reflection of this, the report states, was the

dissatisfaction voiced by politicians and those in the

livestock industry when beef consumption did not

recover after reports about BSE surfaced.

 

The report labels the farm lobby among Diet members as

a pressure group that ``requested policy that was

advantageous to producers, supported efforts to obtain

government budget funding for the agriculture sector

and influenced, both directly and indirectly, the

policies of the agriculture ministry at every stage of

the BSE scare.''

 

The farm lobby's predisposition toward favoring

producers was shared by the agriculture ministry,

which is described in the report as ``a ministry

promoting a specific industry.''

 

The report suggests changing to a policy of

emphasizing the needs of consumers if Japan wants to

be viewed as an advanced industrial nation.

 

The report also blames the Ministry of Health, Labor

and Welfare for failing to serve as a check on the

activities of the agriculture ministry. It says the

fight over jurisdictional authority and a lack of

lateral communication led to an atmosphere equivalent

to non-interference in the affairs of other

ministries. This atmosphere led the health ministry to

fail to raise concerns in 1996, when the WHO issued

its warning suggesting a ban on meat and bone meal,

and again in 2001, when the agriculture ministry

failed to respond to a BSE study conducted by the

European Union.(IHT/Asahi: March 25,2002)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Movies - coverage of the 74th Academy Awards®

http://movies./