From the May 1996 issue of the Socialist Standard
The roast beef of Old England is a central component of the myths that go to build the image of John Bull, the phlegmatic, bulldog character, the epitome of British ‘virtues'.
This sturdy icon of strength and resilience owes it all to eating beef, unlike Pop-Eye who did it more economically on spinach. That these ideas were first promoted at a time when the average Englishman saw beef about once a year, and the penalty for poaching the lord's deer was hanging or transportation; that when meat did become accessible to the industrial working class on a regular basis it was more likely to be the frozen Argentinean variety, and that now the most popular meals for eating out are most likely to be an ‘Indian’ or a 'Chinese' is by the way. It is a myth that has done good service to the British ruling class in creating a nationalist consciousness.
British beef has now suffered a severe knock due to increased concerns about BSE. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or "Mad Cow Disease’.
This disease has been prevalent in Britain for a number of years, but not really endemic Not too much concern was shown by the authorities because it was not believed to be ‘species transferable', i.e. that humans could get it from eating cattle meat. It is similar to a disease present in sheep called "Scrapie", which has been known for some two hundred years but no-one has contracted dementia from eating sheep. Cattle have been grazed for years on grass infected with Scrapie and seemed unaffected.
All that changed when in the unceasing drive to reduce costs of production imposed by the economic laws of capitalism, someone came up with the bright idea of feeding animal protein to cattle for the purpose of fattening them more quickly. Scientists warned the government of the risks of transmitting disease—bearing pathogens to stock and thence to humans, but the Ministry of Agriculture chose to ignore these findings and rejecting a tight licensing scheme, allowed the meat industry to determine its own standards.
Some five years later there were alarming reports of cases of Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (CJD) in humans, attributed to eating beef. It was considered at that time that only the brain and spinal cord was suspect, but opinion is now coming round to the idea that other parts might be too. It now seems that the disease producing pathogens can cross the species barrier, and this raised horrific potentialities. CJD is an intense form of dementia invariably culminating in death in three months to a year.
This is a major crisis for British capitalism, striking on several levels—economic, credibility of Ministers and government, mythology, the soundness of British agriculture, and the future of McDonalds.
While the government at first under-reacted they are now probably over-reacting with the talk of killing of at least four million cattle. However, they see this as the only way to restore the most important item, confidence, so that they can go on selling British beef and continue to make profits. The immensity of the task of killing four million cattle in sheer logistic terms is horrendous, quite apart from the further pollution the incineration will cause. Since the infective agent now thought to be a prion— a form of protein—is highly resistant to destruction, including by heat it is by no means certain that incineration will be sufficiently effective.
Of course the principal reason why the government is taking drastic action is not because of fears for the health of the British public. It is because of their fears for the health of the British export trade and the huge sums of money involved. When Germany banned British beef two years ago it was condemned as arrogant German nationalism. When the whole of Europe joined in and the facts could hardly be denied, something had to be done or at least it had to look as though something was being done.
It will be instructive to see how long the present crisis lasts and whether they will be able to wriggle out of it. But don't think that contamination of food is confined to beef. Food has been contaminated, adulterated and manipulated since the early days of capitalism and the situation continues today.
The working class can draw two lessons from this sorry spectacle. First, that any trust given to either political leader or to business is totally misplaced. In the running of the capitalist system only one criterion can count the need to make a profit What other reason could there possibly be for feeding processed sheep meat and chicken droppings to vegetarian cows?
The other lesson is that capitalism in the midst of its seeming indestructibility is in fact very vulnerable. At any time a crisis of this nature, a Chernobyl, an oil slick, a stock market panic can cause big problems to the poor idiots who by to make it run smoothly. And whoever else suffers in the process, workers always suffer too.
Cyril Evans
No comments:
Post a Comment