John Block Reports from Washington

Cows are headed for slaughter. Beef consumption has collapsed 40% in France. Beef is being yanked off the school lunch menu in Paris and Berlin. Mass hysteria seems to have a grip on all of Europe. The threat -- Mad Cow Disease.

Now I'm not here to say there is no threat or that precautions should not be taken but it seems that the European consumer overreacts to every little thing. And in fact, they really don't care to listen to the scientists and the risk statistics.

It is a fact that there currently is no scientific evidence that (BSE) Mad Cow Disease can be transmitted to humans or that eating beef causes the disease. The actual risk of infection from wherever it comes is tiny -- very tiny. The hysteria erupted when it was reported that one person in France had died. Far more people in France will die from eating unpasteurized cheese than from Mad Cow disease. But don't try and tell the French to pasteurize their cheese!

The Mad Cow scare has been a serious blow to the beef farmers of Europe. Millions of dollars are going to be spent on testing. Some herds will be slaughtered.

In the U.S., we should not have much to be concerned about. Only one case of the disease was identified here in North America. A cow was shipped from Britain to Canada. That whole herd was destroyed and no more Mad Cows since.

There is concern (although not proven) that perhaps the disease can be spread by feeding ground up animal parts to animals as a source of protein. As a precaution the European Union farm ministers are banning throughout the 15 European nations the feeding of beef meat products to cows, pigs and poultry for six months.

The consequence of their action might seem just another example of some countries that haven't been able to accept hormone beef or genetically engineered crops. But the impact on the U.S. farmer is significant. They need protein to balance their feeding ration. Well, they're not going to get it from meat scraps now.

So... load the boats. Soybean meal to the rescue.

Until next week, I'm Jolm Block, reporting from Washington.