02/20/06 A whale of a diet

I have been on a soap box about the Japanese banning our beef, their hypocrisy of labeling our beef as unsafe while they continue to consume repertoire of dangerous foods among them Fugu, poisonous pufferfish that reportedly kill over 100 Japanese's each year. This is not the only arena they operate in blatant disregard to effects of their actions on the international community. Japanese officials snub their noses at international sanctions that protect whales. Recently Japan has harpooned so many whales for consumption, there is now a glut of whale meat in Japan. Consumers aren't buying the meat yet keep killing whales despite the fact that the international whaling commission banned commercial whaling in 1986. Arrogantly they defy this ban by calling killing, research. This year 1,070 minke whales, 10 fin whales, and a total of 160 other whales will be harpooned in the name of this research then served up as whale burgers, meanwhile the US and other concerned countries spend countless dollars to save these mighty mammals. Again time to put our foot down ! I'm Susan Allen and this is Food Forethought. Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3648808.html