Japan Bans Beef from Brazil over BSE Case from 2 Years Ago

Dec 14, 2012

Brazil Aggressively Working on Getting Ban on Beef Lifted

Japan recently announced that it has banned imports of beef products from Brazil after a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) also more commonly known as ‘mad cow’ disease was confirmed from a carcass of a cow that died two years ago.

Despite the ban, the impact is expected to be minimal since Japan doesn’t import a significant amount of beef from Brazil. In 2011, Japan only imported 1,400 tons of beef which accounted for 0.3% of the total amount of beef exports.

The World Animal Health Organization notified Japanese officials of the BSE case on Saturday that a 13-year-old cow that died in Dec. 2010 was infected with the disease.

Brazil is currently working on getting the ban lifted; citing that it was an extreme reaction of Japan given the cow has been dead for two years and never died from the disease.

The Brazilian government is worried that if the situation is not dealt with quickly, that other nations might follow suit. Brazil is the second-largest exporter of beef.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.