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Schafer to South Korea: U.S. beef is safeSAN ANTONIO (AP)--Amid massive protests in South Korea over the planned resumption of U.S. beef imports, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said June 10 that the meat is safe. "Every single carcass that's processed is inspected by a USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) inspector," Schafer told reporters. "That beef is stamped A-OK and we want to certainly assure our consumers here in the United States, as well as our consumers outside of the U.S. in foreign countries, that we provide a good, clean, safe, abundant food supply here." Schafer was in Texas with Food Safety and Inspection Service administrator Al Almanza to tour beef slaughter and processing facilities. A visit to a poultry facility was planned for June 11. "We have shown in the United States the ability to provide that good clean, safe, food supply, the safest in the world," Schafer said at a tour of L&H Packing Co., in San Antonio. "Now certainly we have some incidences once in a while and we get through them." On June 10, about 80,000 protesters demonstrated in Seoul, South Korea, against the planned resumption of U.S. beef imports. The entire Cabinet offered to resign in the uproar over the policy. "The whole South Korea thing is hard to understand because their concept is, Americans don't eat our own beef, and certainly we do," Schafer said. The South Korean government agreed in April to lift almost all restrictions that had been imposed on imports of U.S. beef over fears of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Protesters have been demanding for weeks that the government scrap or renegotiate the beef deal amid perceptions it did not do enough to protect citizens. "I certainly feel comfortable in assuring the consumers in the United States, as well as abroad, that this product is as safe as safe can be," Schafer said. In May, Schafer said the USDA was beginning work on a rule that would ban the slaughter of cows too sick or weak to stand. The rule would shut down an exception allowing a small number of so-called "downer" cattle into the food supply if they pass veterinary inspection. They are already mostly banned from slaughter, but under current rules can be allowed in if they fall down after passing an initial veterinary inspection, and then are re-inspected and pass that second inspection, too. "I have made the decision to eliminate any downer cows for any reason going into the facility," Schafer said June 10. "We have to go through the publishing of the rules and get public hearings and those kinds of things but that is the direction that we will go." 6/23/08 Date: 6/18/08
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