IT was the year when cranks and eccentrics got their own back. Vegetarians could finally look the rest of us in the eye and say: "We told you so." The BSE crisis also prompted a wider crisis - a crisis of trust between consumers and food producers which is yet to be resolved. Meat eaters recovered from the BSE scare of the spring, only to learn in the autumn of antibiotic residues in pork, then to see a flurry of convictions of some of the country's most prosperous farmers for the use of illegal drugs like "angel dust". A gang, described by the Department of Agriculture as "stupid and treacherous", was selling a BSE formula to farmers for £5,000. The ongoing BSE risk, combined with unscrupulous producers willing to dose food with everything, made shopping feel like a game of Russian roulette.
Among those meant to protect the consumer, there were some who were doing the opposite. Earlier this month, Judge John Brophy described Maurice Regan, a prosperous 55 year old veterinary surgeon from Meath who was convicted of possessing and keeping for sale illegal growth promoters, as a man I would compare to drugs barons who would supply heroin, crack, cocaine, cannabis or whatever to humans". "Angel dust", or clenbuterol, can cause high blood pressure in anyone unlucky enough to eat meat tainted with it.
At the same time as these revelations have made consumers struggle through food shopping with fear in their hearts, beef sales, haven't been as badly affected as many had feared. This month, Quinnsworth is down only 5 per cent on last year, while Superquinn is actually up 15 per cent on 1995. Overall, domestic beef sales are down about 10 per cent, although in terms of exports, Irish farmers have lost £200 million.
So, after a full year of one food scare after the next, what's going on? Has the BSE crisis actually affected the way the Irish eat or was it simply a case of media hype and middle class neurosis?
The crisis began three weeks into March, when "one half hour in the House of Commons set the Irish beef industry back 10 years', as Ivan Yates put it. After years of denial that humans could get BSE from eating infected beef, the British government - and the rest of Europe - was forced to recognise the link between BSE and Creutzfeld Jacob Disease, a degenerative brain disease which could destroy active young people within months of diagnosis.
On March 21st, at the height of the scare, Dr Stephen Dealler, a British doctor who had investigated the link between BSE and humans, claimed that to million people could have CJD by the year 2010. Would consumers believe him or the UCD scientist) Dr Mark Reyes, who said that eating British beef was as dangerous as breathing the air in your average industrial city?
The answer was clear within days. It was in vain that An Bord Bia put ads in the newspapers claiming: "You can be sure of Irish beef." Even as gardai were "sealing" the Border to prevent large numbers of cattle being smuggled through, beef sales fell by 45 per cent. Parents started banning beef from their children's diets and ordering chicken nuggets instead of burgers in fast food restaurants. The farmer discovered the existence of the consumer - although there was no indication that the farmer would do anything about it other than blame the consumer (and seek compensation from the Government and Brussels).
RETAILERS, whose direct relationship with the consumer made them even more sensitive to the issue, began almost immediately to withdraw dozens of products from the shelves, with the focus on removing processed food containing British beef and beef products. The consumer began reading labels again - many of them for the first time since the food additives scare of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
As Mr Gerard O'Neill, managing director of the Henley Centre in Dublin, observed: "We saw the green movement resurrected as concern about food grew. Whereas in the 1980s, it was more about the effect on the environment of CFCs, waste, cleaning products and packaging, this 1990s movement is having a more direct effect on eating and purchasing behaviour. It's more immediate. We all have to eat and put this stuff into our bodies."
Sen Feargal Quinn, owner of Superquinn, began to see an erratic pattern in food buyers' behaviour which continued through the summer. The customer panels which Superquinn holds each week began to respond instantly to the latest developments in the BSE crisis, refusing to buy meat in weeks when the news was bad, and returning to eating meet a few weeks later when the news was more reassuring.
It was a confusing time as the number of BSE cases on Irish farms rose. By the end of the year, we would see more than 65 cases, compared to just 16 in 1995. At the same time, consumers began to eat beef again.
Their confidence was eroded once more in October when Russia refused to import beef from counties Cork, Tipperary and Monaghan. The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, blamed the upsurge of new BSE cases on the continued use of banned meat and bonemeal, proving to the consumer that the farmer still hadn't got the message. Mr Yates's incorrect assertion that he had personally negotiated with the Russians at Dublin Airport when, in fact, he was eventually exposed as having spoken to them on the phone, further eroded Government credibility. Who could the consumer trust? Anybody?
Then the Consumers Association revealed that unacceptable levels of antibiotics, which may be encouraging an epidemic of antibiotic resistant and potentially fatal infections in humans, were turning up in 17 per cent of samples of pork. Also in October, the Department of Agriculture revealed that one in 200 samples of produce, mostly fruit and vegetables, contained pesticides that exceeded maximum residue limits, a situation which Mr Yates described, unbelievably, as "satisfactory".
At the end of October, the Government finally established a Food Safety Board, its first real attempt to assuage the consumer's considerable worries about food, although whether this is more than a PR exercise remains to be seen.
There was another boost for the consumer when among 99 cases to be prosecuted, consumers saw two of the country's most prominent beef producers sentenced for the use of illegal substances in cattle - in one instance, that of farmer Ronald Armitage, of Tipperary, his term was actually increased on appeal from six months in jail to a year. The convictions sent shock waves through the meat industry but also confirmed what the consumer had long feared - that Irish meat had long been tainted.
As the year ended, Prof Richard Lacey, the British scientist who for years had been crying foul in relation to the food industry, felt the evidence now proved his case that humans could indeed get BSE from eating meat - something the consumer had long feared. Some 14 cases of a virulent new form of BSE in humans - known as nvCJD, new varient CJD - have so far been identified. How many more will there be in 1997?
THE story certainly doesn't end - not only for BSE but for other scares as well. The E Coli scare, so far limited to the US, Japan and burgers from two butcher shops in Lanarkshire in Scotland, is almost certain to arise again in 1997.
"There is no doubt that are more scares to come - poultry, sheep and so on will all be put under the microscope and will alert a growing number of people to the problems that exist. As we see issues like genetically altered tomatoes and soyabeans and the impact of the importation of US beef containing growth promoters, consumers will be bombarded with more debate and concern," according to Mr O'Neill, of the Henley Centre.
Sen Quinn is also convinced that another meat scare - probably regarding poultry - is on the way. He admits that poultry is the only meat that he cannot guarantee the quality of.
The trend in the retail business in the Republic and the UK is that increasingly consumers will look to retailers, rather than government authorities, to take responsibility for ensuring the safety of food by sourcing it carefully. Superquinn has been reassuring consumers for seven years by supplying the names of firms who supply beef. Others, such as Quinnsworth, have taken up this idea. Quinnsworth has this month hired its first food technologist because it feels it needs its own assurances of the quality of food.
"We have to be able to ensure the consumer that the standard of our food is A-1," says Mr Barry Sherrett, director of fresh food at Quinnsworth. This certainly says something about the level of consumer confidence in the Government's testing programmes.
After a year of anxiety, the consumer is still in limbo and the Government seems unwilling to take the lead in making radical changes in food production. "This is a chance for Ireland to capitalise on its green image and go organic," says Sen Quinn. But will the Government see the opportunity? With big business at stake, many people doubt it.
The consumer could eventually win out, however. In November, the Institute of European Food Studies, based at Trinity College, Dublin, reported the results of a Europe wide study which found that Irish consumers are unique in Europe in that they care more about food quality than cost. Of all this year's food news, the Henley Centre regards this development as among the most significant. Food producers would do well to listen.