France and Britain have been engaged in an exceptionally nasty food fight. Passions are high on both sides of the English Channel and Britain's famed tabloids have done their best to push them into the stratosphere. Their inflammatory rhetoric is being matched by the showmanship of French farmers, who are the equal of any British headline writer in temperament and tactics. Ostensibly the beef is about beef -- British beef and the French fear that it might still be tainted with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or "mad cow disease." In reality, the spat is about much larger questions: French people's trust in their government and Britain's concern about its place in the European Union. That means that, despite the best efforts of politicians in London and Paris, the dispute may continue to escalate.

In 1996, the EU imposed an embargo on British beef after reports that it was infected with BSE and had passed the disease onto humans. Twenty-six people have died of the disease in Britain, where virtually all BSE cases in Europe have been reported. Britain responded by culling its herds. After further study, the European Commission lifted the ban this summer, but France and Germany refused to go along.

The French claimed they had "new evidence" that the embargo was lifted prematurely, but late last month the EU's 18-member Scientific Steering Committee disagreed. It unanimously concluded that there was no scientific evidence justifying continuation of the French ban. French officials kept that bar up anyway, sparking a crisis between London and Paris, as well as between France and the EU.