BSE Free Beef

Dec 2000 – 4’34”

1.38

It is six o’clock in the morning on the world’s largest beef market - Liniers in Buenos Aires. Breeders from all over Argentina bring their cattle here to be sold. 15,000 cows a day are

auctioned. The black Angus cattle and the beef it produces are Argentina’s strongest trademarks.

Just like most of the Argentinian population, these animals are immigrants. The Spanish and Portuguese imported them in the 16th century. Yet the irony is that the cattle which came to Argentina 400 years ago, guaranteed BSE-free, were of Scottish and English extraction.

02.18

I/V Pedro Mendizabal

Cattle breeder

The Angus cow is one of the most important breeds in Argentina. They originate from Scotland - here you can see some of the red cattle - there are black and red ones. These breeds have adapted very well to the Argentinian climate. The quality of the meat is excellent, which is very important for our work here in Argentina.

02.50

In accordance with export regulations, Argentina is allowed to export 28,000 tons of beef to Europe per year. Although there has never been a single case of mad cow disease in Argentina, BSE is still having a negative effect on the sales of Argentinian beef.

03.08

I/V

Carlos Arancedo

Manager of Liniers slaughterhouse

Argentinian beef is free of BSE and other diseases. Our animals only live off grass, and of course we hope that our customers know this. When there is something like a BSE scare, then people buy less meat in general, which also affects us. So that’s why we certainly hope that the BSE problem can be solved in the forseeable future. Unfortunately it was all the mistake of one European country - either it wasn’t noticed in time or the contol mechanisms were not correctly in place.

03.50

According to official sources no animal-based feed is used in Argentina - the authorities say that the facilities to turn dead animals into feed don’t even exist.

Argentina is a huge country - around 50 million Argentinian cattle are mostly raised on the open pasture. They feed almost exclusively on the lush grass of the pampa.

04.14

I/V

Luis Fennegan

Farm worker

The cattle are eight or nine months old when they come here. Until then they are only fed on their mother’s milk. They stay here for around 15 months, and the gauchos make sure that a maximum of only three cows graze on one hectare of pasture. This guarantees that the cattle have enough space to graze and enough grass to eat.

04.38

Consumer panic however does not distinguish between different types of meat or ist origin. Due to the low demand following the BSE crisis world beef prices have fallen by around 50 per cent in the last three years. A huge campaign to promote Argentinian beef and win back customers’ trust is being planned for next year.

05.00

I/V Alexander Medinger

cattle breeder

There never has been and never will be a case of mad cow disease in Argentina. This is because the cattle feed is completely different to that in Europe.

At first we all thought that the European crisis would push our meat prices up, because our meat is absolutely BSE-free. But unfortunately the opposite was true - the slump in beef consumption in Europe caused world meat prices to fall, and Argentinian meat prices are now low, which is a major disappointment to us.

05.37

Back to Buenos Aires. The falling world beef prices are hitting Argentina at a bad time. The country is in dire economic crisis. Unemployment has rocketed to 15% and foreign debts are proving very difficult to pay off. The BSE crisis in Europe will lead to even more isolation and protectionist measures, yet is contagious. Via the global economy, just one mad cow in Germany or Britain can spread suffering to cattle breeders on the Argentinian estancia.

end insert: 06.10

report: Rosa Euler Rolle
Sabine Zink

camera: Hector Lopez

edit: Richard Stanzl