So far there doesn’t seem to have been any appreciable rush by people in the United States to abandon beef in the wake of the discovery of a cow with Mad Cow Disease in Washington State.
A January poll conducted by IPSOS U.S. Express for the American Farm Bureau Federation found that 74 percent of Americans said their beef consumption was about the same as it was before the Dec. 23 announcement of the infected cow.
Fifteen percent said their consumption of beef was down slightly or significantly, while 7 percent said their consumption of beef was up slightly or significantly. Four percent of respondents either did not eat beef or said they did not know whether their consumption of beef had increased, decreased or remained about the same.
Certainly fast food restaurants like McDonald’s were unfazed by the announcement. Sales at McDonald’s increased 12.2 percent in December — the ninth month in a row of increased sales for the fast food chain that had experienced slow growth the past couple years.
Source:
Poll: U.S. Still Eating Beef Despite Mad Cow Case. Reuters, January 12, 2004.
McDonald’s posts strong year-end sales. Dave Carpenter, Associated Press, January 27, 2004.