Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Troll_Bait]

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200805/200805020019.html

[GoldMember]

Korean Beef is crapolla, loaded big time with antibiotics.
It's estimated that in 1000kg of beef, there is 1 kg of antibiotics.

[spliff]

I bought 2 kilos of New Zealand ground chuck roast today for a little less than 20,000. Maybe have a bbq on the roof this weekend.

[Dodgy Al]

[Typhoon]

Man, my wife has been driving me insane for the past 3 days about this. She tells me about all the crap she has read on "news sites" and watched on TV. I am blown away at how inaccurate the information is that the "news stations" are giving to the public. My wife informed me that there is a woman in Virigina right now who is suffering from mad cow. However, I can't find any news of it anywhere. She also informed that a Korean lady in Korea has mad cow now, again no "real" news story reporting this. She is convinced that we are all going to die of mad cow. I have to tell her night in and night out that the sky is not falling and we are not going to die of mad cow. Man, I hate the Korean media (I hope that is not too much of a generalization for the don't generalize crowd). I say bring on the US beef. Let's get some cheaper high quality meat here!!! I remember the good old days pre 2003 when we could get US and Canadian beef here. It was wonderful!!

I mean how hard is it for people to figure out they can't trust the media here. Am I the only one who remember the VT shooting and how the Korean media reported the shooters mom and dad killed themselves. The media's basis for this report:

Yes, the couldn't contact them by phone. Clearly they killed themselves.

[GoldMember]

Here Tis:

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/special_view.asp?newsIdx=5376&categoryCode=180

By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter

Consumers Korea, a civic group seeking to protect consumers' right announced surprising news a few months ago that beef in Korea, whether it is domestic or imported, is the most expensive in the world. Korean and imported beef were 55,800 won and 54,500 won per kilogram on average, respectively.

The civic group pointed that inefficient and complicated logistics is the main reason for the high price of livestock in Korea.

Probably, another reason for the high price, though it is not the most important factor, is that livestock farmers in Korea spend more money than anyone else in the world in feeding antibiotics to their pigs and cows, according to a recent report by civic groups on animals.
Korean livestock farmers spent 0.91 kilograms per one-ton of livestock in 2002, which is about three times more than the Japan's 0.35 kilograms, according to a report of the Korean Animal Welfare Association.

The use of antibiotics was followed by the United States with 0.14 kilograms, New Zealand with 0.04 kilograms, Denmark with 0.04 kilograms and Sweden with 0.03. The association conducted the survey with the support of the U.K.-based civic group, the World Society for the Protection of Animals.

The survey result indicates that a variety of livestock produced in Korea are tainted with antibiotics, which raises a new problem because the antibiotics in animals are transferred to people who eat them.

Economics of Giving Antibiotics to Animals

The Korean Animal Welfare Association (KAWA) said in its report that the unclean, enclosed and artificial environment for livestock requires farmers to administer various medicines.

``It is almost impossible for animals, who live in a crowded environment where fresh air is filtered, not to depend on medicine for survival,'' the report said. ``Farmers administer antibiotics in order to improve the immune system of the animals to ensure their survival, but the overuse of antibiotics leads to human's development of resistance to certain diseases.''
Farmers administer antibiotics regularly even when livestock are not ill to prevent animals from getting a disease.

Actually, overuse of antibiotics is an economical matter. Administering antibiotics pays off for farmers.

``We know giving antibiotics to my pigs are not a good idea ultimately, but if my pigs get sick or they die due to some disease, we lose money,'' a 38-year-old livestock raiser whose last name is Kim in Paju, Gyeonggi Province said. ``It is much more economical to buy antibiotics than to see my pigs sick or dead.''

But the problem with the administering antibiotics has many negative aspects.

These days it is common for doctors to find patients who are resistant to certain medicines because they have eaten meat containing antibiotics. According to doctors' surveys, vegetarians tend to have less resistance to medicines related to antibiotics.

In addition, the more concentrated the farms of livestock, the more likely epidemics such as foot and mouth disease and pig cholera are to develop. For example, when foot and mouth disease took place in the United Kingdom in 1967, the incident was limited to a certain area but in 2001 the disease spread across the nation in two weeks, the report said.
Particularly, considering the increased number of foot and mouth diseases, avian flu and pig cholera in Korea since 2002, KAWA said the amount of antibiotics given to animals would have also increased.

`Awful' Environment of Livestock

The association attributed Korea's No. 1 use of antibiotics to the poor environment livestock are kept in. It conducted another survey, visiting 11 pig farms and 7 abattoirs in the nation, and concluded them as being ``awful.''

Video footage from the association shows that pigs can't move freely in their pens because they are so crowded, and the floor is full of excrement. They eat and sleep with the foul environment 24 hours a day.

Farmers on small breeding farms also removed teeth and cut the tails of baby pigs _ without an anesthetic _ to prevent them from leaving scars on each other while fighting. The fights take place regularly because of stress, and scars on pigs lower their price on the market.
Female pigs are forced to give birth two or three times a year in small pens where they cannot move even an inch, the report added.

However, all these poor conditions form a vicious circle: the poor environment of livestock aggravates their health, which requires the use of antibiotics even before they get sick.

Government to Introduce Measures

Aware of the need to take action, two weeks ago the government finally announced a package to fix the situation.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said it will give subsidies to farmers who raise livestock in an environment-friendly way including not using antibiotics.

The ministry will select ``environmental-friendly farms'' and give them cash over three to five years in order to support their environmental-friendly facilities.

If farmers produce organic livestock or raise them without antibiotics, they will receive another cash payment, according to the ministry.

Park Hae-sang, vice minister of agriculture and forestry, said that the ministry will basically improve food safety by expanding food control process from production to the logistics of livestock farming.

He said that the ministry will designate over half of the total livestock farms under the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) system by 2017. The system is a preventive approach to food safety that addresses physical, chemical and biological hazards as a means of prevention rather than finished product inspection.

The government will also financially support the installment of clean breeding farms on the condition that the farms adopt the HACCP system within three years.

The first recipient of the benefit came out early last week as a chicken farm in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province received a certificate as an antibiotics-free chicken producer from the government.

[email protected]

[Imbroglio]

We VEGANS don't have to worry about getting mad cow. We VEGANS will outlive the lot of you beefeaters.

Flame on!

[GoldMember]

Don't feel too cocky Mr Vegan. With all these GMO foods coming onstream it's only a matter of time before we see an outbreak of Mad Broccoli disease, followed by its cousin Loony Carrot disease.

[Imbroglio]

I'm just kiddin ya, I love a good steak

[Typhoon]

You are right actually. These days being vegan is the smart thing to do. The anti-biotic thing is pretty scary actually. I have seen some livestock farms in Korea and they are terrible. In fact I can't believe there haven't been madcow cases in Korea.

[Brady]

My older students brought this into me today, so we had a lesson on the word "exaggerate." As in, Koreans exaggerate a miniscule problem so as to cloak nationalism and anti-Americanism within the pretext of concern for public health.

I'm not sure what bothers me more: the ignorance or the mob mentality. I think the mob mentality.

[agentX]

I don't know about this...they are onto something here, though I wouldn't worry about CJD. I'd be more concerned about Alzheimers.
http://www.cyber-dyne.com/~tom/Alzheimer_cjd.html
This paper seems to indicate a link between rogue prions and CJD being misdiagnosed as Alzheimers.
Prions are specially folded proteins, and CJD is caused by misfolded prions.

But, it's not all doom and gloom. As recently as '04 researchers have found ways to refold toxic prions.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/040119/19prions_2.htm

So how do CJD causing prions get into the beef supply?
When cattle eat parts of other cattle.
http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/NM/madcow96.php

So the risks of a CJD outbreak in Korea appear to be far-fetched and minimal, so they should be more concerned about Bird Flu than CJD. When it comes to US beef, incidents like the Chino case DO NOT HELP!
http://bgdailynews.com/articles/2008/05/01/opinion/our_opinion/opinion1.txt
Downer cattle should not be allowed to enter the market, and neither should cattle be mistreated.
Instead of complaining about Korean people's overreactions, the US beef industry should be taking more steps to clean up their image and production practices. Of course, so should Korea, in light of GoldMember's evidence.

[amo_jh]

I don't think the Koreans are doing this for no reason.
Because they lifted the ban of imports of American beef of over 30 months old (which is banned in US), all those old American cows will get imported here (most other countries banned them). All MCD cases reported have come from old cows btw.
Also the prions are found in bones. You need to realize that 99% of koreans boil bones to make soups, and studies have proven that boiling does not destroy the prions.
The above and the gene factor sure put the Koreans at very high risk.

[jvalmer]

The argument about Koreans being likely to get CJD from a mad cow is a farce. But, I do think allowing old cows to be imported is maddness.

[bacasper]