Tweet [1]
It’s discouraging that the USA Today editorialist who penned these paragraphs [2] doesn’t see the internal contradiction therein; it’s even more discouraging that many readers will miss this contradiction:
While the mad-cow fears in South Korea might be overblown, neither the U.S. cattle industry nor the federal government seems to understand that food is not like steel or plastics. What people eat is an intensely personal matter. In many of the countries that have banned U.S. beef, food is part of the culture and, in some cases, the religion.
In the USA, food might be less spiritual, but it is keenly important. Some consumers are turning away from large-scale agriculture, buying organic products and even dealing directly with local farms through subscription programs known as Community Sponsored Agriculture [3].
To some degree, those consumers and protesters in the streets of South Korea are sending the same message: They don’t want big government and powerful industries telling them what’s for dinner.