Japan Bars Cargill Plant Beef;
FTA Drives Korean Farmer Postal
By Richard Smith
TOKYO — Japan on Friday suspended beef imports from Cargill Meat Solutions' Dodge City, Kansas plant, because a shipment the processor sent contained beef without age certification. A few days earlier, a Korean farmer angry about his country’s trade deal with the U.S. shot and killed a neighbor who didn’t share his views.
Two tons of chilled tongue from the Cargill plant arrived March 20 at Kobe port in Japan. Last Tuesday, inspectors found four of the 250 boxes were without necessary U.S. government age certification, the Japanese ministries of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and of health, labor and welfare, said in a joint statement.
The boxes were labeled in Spanish, the statement said on the ministries' Japanese-language websites.
Under a bilateral anti-BSE accord, the U.S. may only send to Japan beef from cattle age 20 months or younger, from which all SRMs have been removed.
In South Korea, a drunken cattle farmer shot and killed a neighbor and injured two others last Tuesday after an angry debate over the U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement.
Police said the 44 year-old beef breeder, surnamed Lee, took off in his truck after angrily shooting at his neighbors with an air gun in Yecheon, the Seoul English-language daily The Korea Herald reported Thursday.
Lee, who kept the air gun for hunting purposes, had been close friends with the victims. The two injured neighbors are currently recovering in the hospital while police search for Lee's whereabouts, The Korea Herald reported.
"Victims stated that the farmer had brought a rifle from his room after screaming that they should all die together, as it was not worth living anymore after the trade pact," Yecheon police said.
A local farmers' group leader critical of the pact, Lee appears to have lost his temper at his neighbors, who held different views. Lee moved to the rural region after leaving his business in the city about six years ago, and had been expanding his herd of some 50 cattle, The Korea Herald reported.
The FTA has drawn strong protests from South Korean farmers, who fear the market-opening deal will threaten their way of life, The Korea Herald said.
The newspaper reported that although the government has been ensuring farmers the FTA would be beneficial to South Korea in the long run, one study showed the deal would cause up to two trillion won ($2.1 billion) in lost sales and drive more than 130,000 farmers out of work.
FTA Drives Korean Farmer Postal
By Richard Smith
TOKYO — Japan on Friday suspended beef imports from Cargill Meat Solutions' Dodge City, Kansas plant, because a shipment the processor sent contained beef without age certification. A few days earlier, a Korean farmer angry about his country’s trade deal with the U.S. shot and killed a neighbor who didn’t share his views.
Two tons of chilled tongue from the Cargill plant arrived March 20 at Kobe port in Japan. Last Tuesday, inspectors found four of the 250 boxes were without necessary U.S. government age certification, the Japanese ministries of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and of health, labor and welfare, said in a joint statement.
The boxes were labeled in Spanish, the statement said on the ministries' Japanese-language websites.
Under a bilateral anti-BSE accord, the U.S. may only send to Japan beef from cattle age 20 months or younger, from which all SRMs have been removed.
In South Korea, a drunken cattle farmer shot and killed a neighbor and injured two others last Tuesday after an angry debate over the U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement.
Police said the 44 year-old beef breeder, surnamed Lee, took off in his truck after angrily shooting at his neighbors with an air gun in Yecheon, the Seoul English-language daily The Korea Herald reported Thursday.
Lee, who kept the air gun for hunting purposes, had been close friends with the victims. The two injured neighbors are currently recovering in the hospital while police search for Lee's whereabouts, The Korea Herald reported.
"Victims stated that the farmer had brought a rifle from his room after screaming that they should all die together, as it was not worth living anymore after the trade pact," Yecheon police said.
A local farmers' group leader critical of the pact, Lee appears to have lost his temper at his neighbors, who held different views. Lee moved to the rural region after leaving his business in the city about six years ago, and had been expanding his herd of some 50 cattle, The Korea Herald reported.
The FTA has drawn strong protests from South Korean farmers, who fear the market-opening deal will threaten their way of life, The Korea Herald said.
The newspaper reported that although the government has been ensuring farmers the FTA would be beneficial to South Korea in the long run, one study showed the deal would cause up to two trillion won ($2.1 billion) in lost sales and drive more than 130,000 farmers out of work.