Unsure of U.S. beef safety, 9 out of 10 Koreans to buy homegrown beef for Chuseok:

SEOUL, Sept. 11 (Yonhap) -- Despite its high price, nine out of 10 South Korean shoppers will buy homegrown beef to serve at the upcoming Chuseok holiday, as they are still unsure of the safety of U.S. beef, a survey found Thursday.

The telephone canvass of 500 people also suggested that three out of 10 Koreans
would not dine in restaurants using U.S. beef.

The survey, jointly conducted by Green Korea, a Seoul-based environmental
organization, and Rep. Cho Bae-sook of the progressive Democratic Labor Party,
came as South Koreans prepare to reunite with their families in their hometowns
this weekend to honor their ancestors for Chuseok, the Korean harvest holiday
that is comparable to Thanksgiving in the U.S.

With beef a must-have ingredient for Chuseok food such as soup, barbecue and
pancakes mixed with vegetables, 89.7 percent of respondents said they will
consume only Korean beef, which is about four times more expensive than imported
U.S. beef. U.S. beef was at the bottom of customer preferences at 4.2 percent,
lower than imports from Australia and New Zealand, which weighed in at 5.9
percent.

The place of origin, rather than quality and price, are their foremost
considerations in choosing beef, they said. Some said they would check the Korean
beef brand (35.4 percent) or the country-of-origin label (28.3 percent) first,
while 19.9 percent sought quality and 16.3 percent cheap products.

They cited the safety of U.S. beef (56.9 percent) or concerns about Korean
farmers' livelihoods (25.1 percent) as major reasons for consuming homegrown
beef. Still, a handful of respondents were more politically motivated, with 8
percent saying they didn't like the Korean government's "submission" to
the U.S. on beef imports and 2.8 percent citing the U.S. government's
"snobbish attitude" toward Seoul.

Thousands of Koreans took to the streets almost daily after Seoul signed an
agreement with Washington in April to fully lift a ban on U.S. beef imports that
had been in place from end of 2003, following the outbreak of mad cow disease at
a U.S. cattle farm. The unconditional import deal prompted fears of humans
contracting the brain-wasting disease by eating tainted beef, and many were angry
with the way their government reached the deal without public consensus.

The protests led the two governments to strike an additional agreement imposing
an age limit on the meat as a safeguard. The revised pact took effect in June.

The survey did not provide its margin of error.