Meat-Counter Confusion in S. Korea

Protesters worried about mad cow disease march in Seoul against U.S. beef imports. After lifting a 41/2-year ban in April, President Lee Myung-bak reinstated restrictions Tuesday. (By Ahn Young-joon -- Associated Press)

"I would never, never buy American beef. I have stopped buying Australian beef. I buy only Korean beef, although it is more expensive."

Expensive it is.

At the meat counter of the E-Mart supermarket in central Seoul, Min paid $20 for slightly less than a pound of medium-quality sliced beef. That's about triple the price of imported Australian beef, which was on sale a few feet away.

American beef, if it ever returns to grocery store shelves here, would be as cheap as or cheaper than Australian meat, experts say.

Before 2003, when the first case of mad cow disease in the United States was found in an aging Canadian-born dairy cow in Washington state, South Korea was the third-largest importer of U.S. beef.

If Park Jung-mee, 53, a housewife with three children, has her way, American beef will never return to South Korea.

She was buying chicken at the E-Mart, having read, she said, that a well-cooked chicken poses no threat to human beings.

As for eating U.S. beef, Park was equally sure -- from watching South Korean television and talking to her neighbors -- that it is a very risky business.

"I have heard that American farmers are feeding bits of cow meat to their cows -- eating their own species," she said.

She had not heard that that practice has been banned in the United States since 1997 or that enforcement of the ban was tightened after the first mad cow case in 2003. Only two other U.S. cases have been reported since.

Park was also fuming about what she viewed as the bad behavior of the U.S. ambassador. "I am angry at him for telling Koreans not to worry," she said.

When it comes to beef, Park said, Korean is clearly safest and most delicious.