Revenge of the Bovines

You’ll know it’s time to sell your beef-industry stock when the phrase “mad as a cow” enters common parlance. We’re not there yet, and the U.S. lags well behind Europe in concern over mad-cow disease. Nonetheless, an ABC/Washington Post poll (as summarized on the Polling Report Web site) detects signs that beefophobia is starting to catch on here. Ninety-one percent of Americans said they’ve heard of mad-cow disease. Among this group, 18 percent are “very concerned” about it “becoming a problem” here, and 26 percent are “somewhat concerned.”