Besmirch Strategy Fails Activists called it an acute health threat, orchestrated petitions and demanded that institutions only serve domestic pork. Despite a well-organized campaign of opposition to importing U.S. pork raised with the beta-agonist growth promoter ractopamine, Taiwan's parliament this week approved legislation approving it. Denigrating the reputation of an imported product as a means of blocking competition is not new. In 1962, U.S. chicken had captured a significant share of the French and West German poultry markets. A Time magazine article that year noted that in response, the French government banned imports of U.S. chicken with complaints that the use of hormones could affect male virility. German farmers' associations...

TAGS – Asia, North America