I'm a Europhile, but the double standards enforced within the EU disgust me. No wonder so many people distrust Europe.
In France, BSE is called JCB, because that's what they used to hide the evidence. And that's not a joke...
I have friends who are sons and daughters of farmers (and ex-farmers).
Lynx - to blame the scientists for the BSE problem (at least in terms of the hysteria created) is to miss the point entirely. The problem is that the majority of the public haven't a clue how science works, that it isn't an absolute and that the best you can ever get is a comunity consensus on an issue. Nothing is set in stone.
If you are going to blame anyone, blame the goverment and the rest of the official apparatus that hid the truth for political (which stemmed from economic) reasons.
Ghosth - perhaps now your country might actually come to realise what happened to the beef industry in this country when exports were banned. Healthy herds destroyed, livelihoods lost, farms bankrupted and alot of unemployment. I wouldn't wish it on any country - but I bet there's a lot more whining about from the French and German producers (which will probably be taken heed of by their respective governments).
And meanwhile the British government abides by rules that make it illegal to place a ban on German and French beef imports, due to lack of evidence. Yet 5 years ago, that's exactly what France and Germany did.
