BSE’s Economic Impact on the Beef Industry
The USDA has released a report that documents the economic effects of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy found in U.S. and Canadian cattle.
The net effect? Not much. The BSE discovery came at a time of record demand for U.S. beef, and the domestic market recovered quickly. Exports to foreign markets plummeted, but it turns out the U.S. beef industry only exports about 10 per cent of its meat, so domestic consumers absorbed the impact.
So either we don’t care about bad news, or we love our meat too much to bother with the (potentially slight) risk of contracting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Did mad cows affect your buying habits?
