June 16, 1990. Meat industry bosses have hit back at claims from Professor Richard Lacey that a whole generation of people could contract mad cow disease. John Locke, executive chairman of the British Meat Manufacturers Association said the evidence presented by Professor Lacey to the Commons Select Committee for Agriculture was "a load of nonsense". "He has based his evidence on purely unscientific facts ­ we have every confidence in our product." Locke said that British beef was under the constant surveillance of health inspectors and was perfectly sound. "It is wrong to make these sort of assumptions." {{COUNTERPOINT }}