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According to Liberation, France is Europe's
largest beef producer. There are roughly 285,000 French cattle farmers
with 19.9 million heads of cattle. More than 8 million of these
are dairy cows.
However, due to the mad cow scare French
cattle farmers are having trouble finding anyone willing to buy
their cows.
It doesn't matter if a farmer let his herds
graze on green grass fields and feed them with cereals instead of
the potentially tainted feed, all French cows -- and there are 25
different breeds in France -- are "painted with the same brush."
And the 40% drop in beef sales over the
last month is threatening a lot of people's livelihoods.
Roughly 10,000 workers in over 3,500 companies
engaged in the beef trading sector are also facing difficulties.
The smaller companies may have to close because the slaughterhouses
won't accept more animals.
In the slaughterhouses, over 44,000 jobs
are threatened by the crisis. The unions are already predicting
the closure of some slaughterhouses. Meanwhile some workers are
facing reduced hours and temporary layoffs.
At Rungis, the main meatmarket for Paris,
sellers without sufficient buyers are freezing the meat, which loses
30% of its value as soon as it is frozen.
Some restaurants, which used to proudly
proclaim that they served only French beef, have posted signs informing
customers that all their beef is now coming directly from Argentina.
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