IN A photo opportunity last week, Jean Chrétien, Canada’s prime minister, dutifully dug into a steak. The occasion was the discovery in Alberta of North America’s first home-grown case of BSE. The picture was supposed to reassure everyone Canadian beef is safe. Cynics will recall another staged photograph – that of a British minister feeding his four-year-old daughter a hamburger in 1990. Six years later, when the government admitted the connection between BSE and vCJD, the photo became a symbol of government hubris and deceit.
To be fair, Canada and the US have learned from the UK’s experience and implemented…
