IN A photo opportunity last week, Jean Chr茅tien, Canada鈥檚 prime minister, dutifully dug into a steak. The occasion was the discovery in Alberta of North America鈥檚 first home-grown case of BSE. The picture was supposed to reassure everyone Canadian beef is safe. Cynics will recall another staged photograph 鈥� that of a British minister feeding his four-year-old daughter a hamburger in 1990. Six years later, when the government admitted the connection between BSE and vCJD, the photo became a symbol of government hubris and deceit.
To be fair, Canada and the US have learned from the UK鈥檚 experience and implemented important safety precautions in the supply of animal feed. But they have delayed other measures and have not yet overcome the political reflex that the public needs to be reassured, no matter what the real situation, in order to protect business. Officials in Canada and the US are driving home the message that only one infected cow has been found, so beef must be safe. In reality other animals are probably infected, and some may have entered the food chain (see 鈥淏SE crosses the Atlantic鈥�). A more honest assessment would be: 鈥淎lthough we鈥檙e not sure, a small percentage of North American cattle probably have BSE and people could develop vCJD from eating them. But the risk is low, and you are better off worrying about something else 鈥� E. coli, for instance, or cholesterol.鈥�
If Canada and the US are smart, they will look back at what happened in the UK and learn its most important lesson. Confident-sounding reassurances based on ignorance are not easily forgiven when they turn out to be false. Once squandered, official credibility cannot easily be regained.
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