990801 Farmers Cheer End of British Beef BanAugust 7, 1999London - The first British livestock to be exported in three years is to arrive at a slaughterhouse in Cornwall, southwest England, marking the end of a three-year ban on British beef exports imposed by European regulators after an outbreak of mad cow disease. British farmers held open-invitation barbecues to celebrate the lifting of the ban. A supermarket chain offered free beef sandwiches to travelers arriving by train from France at London's Waterloo station, and government officials joined in some very public beef-eating before TV cameras at the barbecues. But there is a long way to go to regain markets and try to re-establish confidence that British beef is safe, particularly in other European countries. The meat from livestock being sent to slaughter today will be shipped to France mid-August as the centerpiece of a marketing drive to persuade the French to buy British beef again. The embargo crippled Britain's beef industry, which lost an estimated $2.4 billion in sales. “It won't happen tomorrow or the day after,” said Tony Pexton, deputy president of the National Farmers' Union, who hosted a barbecue at his farm near Lancing, in West Sussex, southern England. “But let's start fighting for our markets back again.” The Brussels-based European Commission, which enforces rules for the 15- member European Union, imposed the ban after a 1996 outbreak in Britain of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Medical researchers say the disease, commonly known as mad cow disease, is linked to a fatal human brain ailment, Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, which has killed 41 Britons. EU veterinarians approved the end of the ban, but British beef still will be subject to strict precautions. Meat must be de-boned and come from cattle born after Aug. 1, 1996, when a ban came into force on the feeding to animals of meat and bone-meal. Meat from cattle more than 30 months old will not be exported. Elliot Morley, a deputy Agriculture Minister in the Labor Party government, said the ban on sales of beef on the bone would continue until independent experts were convinced such meat was safe. “We are not going to take risks with people's health,” said Morley.
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