VOX POPULI: Quick action needed in beef industry crisis

"The atmosphere felt like a murder scene. When I thought about all the slaughtered cattle, I couldn't even shed a tear." These bitter words from a livestock farmer were printed in The Asahi Shimbun's Miyazaki edition nine years ago. The previous year, foot-and-mouth disease had broken out in Miyazaki Prefecture and Hokkaido. The story looked back at those developments a year later.

"I was so depressed. Why did the cattle I raised with great care have to come down with the disease?" the farmer asked. "My calves are just like my own children. I love them," his wife said. The farmer couldn't sleep at night and spent day after day downing glasses of shochu spirits.

According to the farmer, his wife shut herself up in their house. In addition to their financial losses, they suffered a great deal of mental stress.

Still, the overall damage in that outbreak was relatively small. Only 740 head of cattle had to be culled.

This time, the disease is spreading like wildfire. As of Tuesday, the total number of pigs and cattle due for culling had reached 118,000 in Miyazaki Prefecture. This is the nation's worst foot-and-mouth outbreak. Infection has spread even to a facility for the valuable stud bulls that support the Miyazaki beef brand. This crisis is crushing the industry's backbone.

Stud bulls are the symbols of brand-name beef. One old bull, named Yasuhira, is so prestigious that its frozen semen was once stolen. The bull sired 200,000 offspring in his heyday and is now out to pasture for a leisurely retirement. But because of suspected infection, apparently even Yasuhira will also be put down. I can only imagine the animal's lament.

Foot-and-mouth disease is highly contagious. It raged across Britain in 2001, resulting in the destruction of 6 million animals. Viruses that infect humans are "humankind's worst nemesis." While foot-and-mouth disease is not transmissible to humans, it is our worst enemy nonetheless.

The following tanka appeared in the Asahi Kadan column last month: "Cattle that look back/ And those that do not/ Having seen them both off/ My friend stands motionless for a while." This seems to depict a scene one morning when a farmer is shipping his cattle off to market.

When we think about the hard work and disappointment that livestock farmers experience, we cannot tolerate any further delay in measures to control the situation.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 19

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.