Mad Cows and Don "Meat"

(Note: This is a veeeeerrrrrry long post, if you prefer pictures, and simple things, please scroll below and see the picture that my stoned friends sent me this morning, or look at some of the other stuff that I wrote. Otherwise be prepared to dredge thru the loooong, but, hopefully, informative post for today. All feedback, positive, or negative, is welcome. Acutally, to be presise, anyone is welcome. Enjoy. DWR.)

Mad Cows:
Now who came up with the idea of feeding dead animals to herbivors? Let me tell you something a little bit about biology, "person(s) with the idea of trying to alter the evolution path of domestic cattle". The common domesticated bovine is a ruminant; ruminants eat vegitation. They are designed to break down cellulose, *NOT* animal based proteins. It's like trying to put rocket fuel into your lawnmower. It's going to lead to disaster. And yes, BSE is a disaster created by you feeding dead sheep brain -- from sheep that suddenly keeled over, died twitching and dribbling -- to cows. If you were feeding dead sheep to cows, what are you feeding our pets? Oh that's right, you feed ASH to my cats.

My cats are carnivors! They need more complex molecules to metabolise than pure carbon! They are *not* a fossil fuel powerplant!!!

Japan has banned import of beef from Europe, Canada and the US, that had reported cases of BSE. Many animals, ready to enter our food supply, were distroyed all over the world since 1987 when Britain first began its epidemiological surveillance on the disease. Britain, France, Denmark, Germany, US, Italy, Canada (pretty much everyone apart from Australia and Newzealand, I suppose) all have had "native" cases of BSE; all have had bans, or restrictions, on imports hitting their beef industry -- hard. The fastfood industry was affected, famers were pissed off, and politians were eating beef on T.V. like there's no tomorrow to appease the Beef industry lobbyists, and to get us to eat their diseased cows. "Yes, our beef is safe, see? I'm eating it, yum, yum. We have removed the bad beef from our food supply. The beef on the shelf? Our beef is safe! We killed and incinerated the bad beef, so all is OK." (riiiiiight, I bet you are eating imported ostritch, and pretending it's beef!)

Japan's first reported case of BSE in domestic beef was back in 2001. We are an island nation. We do not import live cattle from anywhere. Our island is too mountainous to rear sheep. As far as I remember prions are not airborne; now they may have entered the water supply if someone dumped some clinical laboratory samples from research centres into reservoirs across the land, but if that is the case there will be not only mad cows, but also mad chicken, mad pigs, mad farmers, mad butchers, mad consumers, mad politicians, and madness everywhere. Well there is madness everywhere, but it doesn't show the classic sypmtoms of spongiform encephalopathy.

So how did we, an island nation, isolated from imports of live lifestock, have its first domestic case of BSE? Where did the disease come from? The answer, dear readers, is cattlefeed. Long after people had stopped buying cattle feed from the country that produced "patient zero", Great Britain, we were happily buying Meat and Bone Feed (MBF), possibly produced BEFORE 1997 when Britain banned the use of MBF as feed for cattle, from them. We are have such a wonderful trade relation with Britain that we were helping them off load the mountains of MBF they have in stock. You don't want inventory sitting in your warehouse too long, right? It's a liability, and its value depreciates fast. Old "Blighters" needed to shift their MBF stock for bagain-basement prices, and we bought it. Our beef producers need to keep their prices down, right? Feed them the cheap shit, said the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries.

Not a good idea....

Don "Meat":
On Dec. 22, 2004, there was one man who made the headlines in the news. The reason? He paid the highest bail money in Japanese history: 2billion yen (US$20mill approx.). His name is Mitsuru Asada, aka. Don "Meat", the former chairman of Hannan Corp., a meat packing, processing, and distribution enterprise.

Little is known about the business dealings of Don "Meat" and Hannan Corp., but the latter's estimated annual sales is reported to be approximately 500billion yen (US$5billion approx.), however, because this Titan meat packer (shit, that sounds like a gay porn film!), the second largest meat importer/distributor in Japan, is not listed on the stock exchange no one knows exactly how it is run. Only Don "Meat", and his band of merry cronnies, know exactly what is (and what isn't) going on at Hannan Corp.

Even less in known of Don "Meat" himself. Originally from a pre-war "lower caste" who were often employed by the food processing industry doing unpleasant work, such as working in slaughterhouses, his origins are extremely humble. He apparently does not drink, does not play golf (often saying: "both are a waste of time, especially when I could be out making money."), but for a man of such background, at age 66, he is known to all in the industry, and within political circles as Don "Meat".

So how did Mr. Asada become Don "Meat"? Don "Meat" started off in the meat packing industry, and his relentless, driven, entrepreneurial style quickly expanded Hannan Corp. based in the Kansai region of western Japan. Up until the beginning of the 90s the meat packing and processing industry was heavily regulated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestries, and Fisheries, whereby only a select number of importers were allowed to operate and process imported meat. At times there will be "offgrade" meat -- sometimes in huge quantities -- a headache for the ministry due to the outdated, and often redundant subsidy process inbedded in the handling/distribution of imported meat. Don "Meat" saw an opportunity in this red tape (ribbon?!), approached the ministry -- on his own -- and made a proposal to the MAFF. "I'll buy your offgrages for dirt cheap, if you let me import beef. "

And that was the first beaurocratic "tie" that Don "Meat" made, a prelude to his vast network of political and offical ties that made him what he was the day he got arrested in April 2004.

Imported Quality Beef, Tainted Domestic Beef, Subsidies, Corrupt Officials, And Don "Meat":
After the first domestic Japanese BSE case was reported in 2001, the public were paranoid, beef prices plummeted, and the MAFF initiated a countriwide investigation into the domestic beef stock entering our food supply to check for contaminated beef. They were able to track that the contaminated livestock were all eating cattlefeed that came in from Europe, specifically from Britain. (well, that was not *difficult*, was it now MAFF, you were BUYING "Cow-Chow" from the Brits at rock-bottom prices!!!) Then the panic ensued. Wholesalers, middlemen, and retailers were at a loss, and pointing fingers to everyone but themselves. The MAFF, as before, sent the "Big-Wigs" in front of the TV cameras from the cabinet, the closet, the wardrobe, and the draws from the Ministry, and put on a fine show of fat, greasy ol' men eating sem-raw "domestic" beef (aka. imported ostrich) to prove to the public that "Japanese Beef Is Safe" (look, we are eating a kilo of ostrich!! yum, yum!)

Not quite.

While the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries "officals" were holding an orgy of orstrich consumption, the Kagemushas 影武者 (shadow warriors) i.e. civil servants/law makers were frantically trying to come up with a solution to save face for the beef industry. They decided to test all dairy cows/beef cattle that were older than 13 months that had eaten sheep brains, slaughted, and were ready to come onto our dinner plates, for BSE. The MAFF, with a gun to their heads from the beef lobbyists, were going to subsidise the meat processing industry for the distruction of the beef that were "tainted".

Then, Don "Meat" had another wonderful idea. Two ideas to be precise.

(Plan 1: Imported Beef)
As the domestic beef price plumeted, so did the imported beef prices. None of the downstream distributors could get rid of their stock; it was getting to a point where small-medium sized distributors were losing money trying to keep imported beef in their expensive refrigeration units. The word bankrupsy was looming behind their left shoulders. Asada, using his "contacts" in the MAFF, and his sharp wit, decided to buy imported beef from the desparate distributors with rapidly depreciating imported beef stock. Officials from the MAFF, endebted to the Don for years, along with the "strong" political allies he had made by then, were more than obliging to introduce distressed beef importers to the Don so that he could buy up the imported beef.

So why was the Don of "Meet" buying up beef when the prices were plummeting? Have you ever studied psychology, dear readers? The human mind plays funny tricks. For instance if I took a bottle of Evian, put vodka in it, at the same time took an empty bottle of Absolute Vodka, put mineral water in it, and left it in the fridge, which would you take? Most people would take the Evian bottle, pour it out in their glasses after their session at the gym and take a big gulp thinking that it was water, and go "Cough, cough, WTF!! Who put vodka in an Evian bottle!!!! WTF!!!"

And that is what the Don "Meat" did.

He bought the imported beef, thru his contacts in the MAFF, for almost next to nothing, relabled it as "domestic" beef, only to be subsidised by them for disposal under the governments compensation scheme for handlers of domestic, potentially tainted beef that had to undergo tests before disposal.

(Plan 2: Disposal)
The MAFF had decided to test domestic beef stocks, but once again without the funding and the staffing to handle some 400 tonnes of beef comming in for inspection. Out of the 184 tonnes of beef sent by Don "Meat" in the first week after they began testing the stock, inspectors were able to check less than 8 tonnes in the same week. The easiest solution for them was to begin mass scale incineration of the domestic beef stock that was pouring onto the inspectors' laps every day from distraught, angry distributors and meat packers accross the nation. Once again Don "Meat" and his cronnies had been controlling the decision making of the MAFF. Two days before the MAFF announced that they were going to begin mass incineration of the beef, with or without inspection, there was one incineration facility in the Kansai region that was blowing smoke from it's chimneys. Present at the site was the mayor of the town, officials from the MAFF, and guess who? Our good friend the Don. The MAFF offical explanation of what happened on that day was they were "testing" and adjusting the reactor to find out the optimum temperature to incinerate the beef so thay it could be disposed of safely. The owner of the private incineration facility gave his testimony to a reportage, Sunday Japan, which was aired on Jan 23d.

Don "Meat" was burning his evidence, and getting his compensation from the MAFF that knew he was burning Aussie beef, not Kobe beef.

Don "Meat" continued to buy up imported meat from the distraught and desparate imported meat distributors, and had them disposed of as domestic beef with the seal of approval from government officals, and the local mayor. This continued until the day before another large company, Yukijirushi, was also caught doing the same thing as Don "Meat". The day before the Yukijirushi incedent came out in the press, Don "Meat" disposed the largest amout of his stock that day: 142tonnes. The plant manager rememers it very clearly, for it was nearly double the amount that was processed at the plant on any day since the "disposal orders" came from the ministry.

In the end the Don acquired thru his various contracts nearly a quarter of the the 21billion yen (US$2.1billion approx) in the BSE related subsidies that was handed out by the MAFF. Along with him countless numbers of officals and politicans, no doubt, had their pockets lined in gold.

In April 2004, following (nearly) a two year investigation, the Don was arrested for fraud and embezzlement. (He has previous convictions for bid-rigging, and was under investigation for his dubious business practises.) He made several court appearances, but was granted bail for 20billion yen in December 2004. He was "detained" for nearly 8 months, only to emerge as a semi-free man to do as he pleases, and to move his assets from one country to another, one company to another, from his wife to his brother, from himself to his business associates....

Don "Meat" will appear in court soon, he's pleading "guilty" to charges of embezzlement, but not fraud. His reasons? That the MAFF was always fully aware of what he was doing; he was not told that he was doing anything wrong by the officials. The mayor of the town that gave him insider information about the mass distruction of the beef stocks has resigned. I'm sure countless more will follow suit. I hope Don "Meat", a man from a "lower-caste" background, will abandon his riches, blabber about everything, and bring down all of the corrupt officials, mayors, governors, and politicians who had sipped the nectar from his deceiving of the general public of what goes into our handburgers.

(Postscript: I usually link to my sources when I write, but today's topic, unfortunately is mainly from news sources, reportage, film footage, newspaper articles, and online sources in Japanese. For anyone interested in the topic I will add all my resources in the "comments" section so that you can have a look at the intricate story behind the Don. I must admit I've had to summarise many of Don "Meat"'s background and his activities. If I went into details, I would be able to write a book!!! Seriously, dear readers, it's that deep, and complex. I need to introduce you to modern Japanese history starting from 1978! Anyway, for ONCE, I have come back to the true DWR style, did my research, spent some time, and (hopefully) produced something that will give you an insight into some of the dark side of our food industry. The Don "Meat" BSE subsidy case is only one of the few maladies that have come to public light. We have had bird-flu cover-ups, milk contaminated with bacteria, ANOTHER case of mislabelling -- this time of imported chicken from China being labeled as free range domestic chicken..... I am one of those "Label Readers". I have lots of allergies, including allergies to food. After reading Fast Food Nation, and looking at the labels on my food (plus working in the consumber business department at my company) I have come to distrust anything that I see in supermarkets, restaurants, and in particular, fastfood restautants. I have no solution for people like Don "Meat" -- I suppose he was one of the unlucky ones that got caught, for I am sure there are many others like him who exploit the food packaging/processing industry today.)