Use of meat and bone meal for cow had to be prohibited by law: Agriculture minister

Facing growing criticism of his irresponsible attitude on the issue of mad cow disease, Agriculture Minister Takebe Tsutomu for the first time admitted that the use of meat and bone meal, a source of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) infection, has to be banned by law to meet the 1996 WHO recommendation.

At the House of Representatives Agriculture and Fisheries Committee meeting on January 10, Japanese Communist Party representative Nakabayashi Yoshiko grilled the ministry's responsibility on this issue by taking up the question of meetings of specialists and ministry officials in 1996, in which the ministry dismissed the opinion that legal steps be taken to ban the use of meat and bone meal.

Showing the minutes of the meeting on April 24, 1996, Nakabayashi said that the ministry finished the discussion in only ten minutes, and closed it till March 2001. She demanded that the Diet summon the ministry's Animal Health Division chief and publish recorded tapes of the meeting.

The JCP lawmaker also took up Takebe's statements that, "everyone is responsible for the use of meat and bone meal," and "to legislate everything will make Japan a socialist country" (on December 26, 2001 in Hokkaido). She asked if the United States, which banned its use by law in 1997, is a socialist country.

Being unable to answer her, the minister admitted that the government had to ban the use of the meal by law, and that the government's administrative regulations were inadequate. He also promised that the government will buy up cows disposed of in relation to the disease and take steps to support dairy farmers and cattle dealers.

The minister cut short his answers often, and apologized for his inappropriate answers. The JCP, together with three other opposition parties, demand that the minister resign. (end)