Despite evidence that infected meat products were unnecessarily exposing countless working people to a disease causing insanity and death, capitalists and their government spokespeople have insisted for a decade that beef was safe. Little was done to prevent infected material from entering the food chain. Animal feed manufacturers and the meat magnates have reaped massive profits while claiming there was no proof that bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or "mad cow disease," could be transmitted to humans.
Since the British government recently admitted scientific reports that a new deadly strain of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease -the human equivalent to BSE - suggested such a link, the chief concern of the representatives of the ruling rich has been restoring "public confidence" in the beef industry. Likewise, the rulers of Germany, France, and other European countries are trying to take advantage of the beef scare to deal blows to their British competitors and boost their own market share.
Working people should demand a policy that puts safety first, not profits. All necessary measures must be taken to eradicate BSE from the human food chain, including the destruction of cattle herds and quarantining land used for beef and milk production.
The government must offer compensation to ensure no working farmers lose their livelihoods from this capitalist-induced crisis. Funding must be devoted to study BSE and its transmission to humans, and develop a treatment. This should be paid not by working people but by the capitalists who have risked our health in order to swell their profits.