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German Angst: Mad Cows and Depleted Uranium

© Peter Weber

At mid-term of the legislation period German chancellor Gerhard Schröder has already lost seven ministers of his cabinet starting in fall 1998. The latest were the minister of sanity Andrea Fischer (Greens) and the minister for agriculture Karl-Heinz Funke (SPD) who resigned in January amid the mishandling of the crisis following the cases of Mad Cow Disease (BSE) found in Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein. As a consequence of the news about ill cattle found all over Western Europe, worried consumers have almost stopped buying beef. Schröder has reacted to the crisis nominating two new ministers, among them Renate Künast (Greens), responsible for consumer protection and agriculture, who will try to introduce a new kind of natural agriculture in Germany. Unfortunately for Schröder there are other ministers at risk, first of all foreign minister Joschka Fischer, a Green, who has been questioned over his past as a street-fighter in Frankfurt in the early 70s. Defense minister Rudolf Scharping (SPD) is much criticized for having exposed his soldiers serving in Kosovo to excessive health risks from uranium-tipped munitions used by U.S. forces during the war between NATO and the Serbs. Several NATO peacekeepers have died of leukemia since serving in the Balkans, adding yet another concern to the European agenda.

Insanity on the continent

“German meat is safe!” was the official credo of German politicians, farmers, butchers and consumers. For almost a decade people had been filing with apprehension across the Channel, hoping that the Mad Cow Epidemic (BSE) could be confined to the United Kingdom where it started in the late 80’s, caused by adding meat-and-bonemeal to cattle food. While a human variant of the disease, called Jakob-Creutzfeld, caused already about 100 victims in Britain, continental Europe seemed to be safe by simply banning British cows, beef and cattle food. But in the summer of 2000 illusions were abruptly ended when a growing number of ill cows were discovered all over Western Europe. First in Portugal and France and later in other countries the disease proved that it was definitely no respecter of national boundaries.

Germany still claimed to be BSE-free, due to a severe legislation on the production of cattle food. But when German laboratories started taking a deeper look into the herds, it took only a few weeks before finding the first case. Before the end of December more than ten cows and calves were discovered, mostly in Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein. The cows in Germany have probably been infected by the ingredients in milk substitutes used to feed the calves. Lately even Italy has had its first case.

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