"The Bush Administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease."
Um, what?
So, the U.S. Government is willingly and publicly hindering, even banning, the testing of cows for a disease which is accountable for over 150 deaths, mostly in Britain?
Yes, that mad cow disease. The same one that forced British officials to slaughter and burn numerous cows in fear of human casulties. The same disease that practically halted all exports of British beef, notably to France.
So not exactly the bovine version of the common cold.
With a disease such as mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), one would assume that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) would be rigorously testing American cows for the disease, right?
Wrong. The USDA only tests a mere 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease (by comparison, Japan tests 100% of its cattle). Did I happen to mention that the disease may be fatal to humans who consume tainted beef, or to those who handle the tainted beef? Surely the low percentage of testing is an indication of no worry of BSE in America, a mere precaution?
Wrong again. There have been three confirmed cases of BSE withing the United States; a cow imported from Canada to Washington state (2003), a cow born in Texas (2005), and an Alabama cow(2006).
Then what on earth could be the reasoning behind the Bush Administration's fight to keep the cows untested? Money, plain and simple.
A beef produces in Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wanted to test all its cows, using the same test that the USDA relies on. Great! Don't you want your beef tested for a potentially fatal disease?
The Bush Administration and large meat companies don't want your steak tested. Were the beef producer in Kansas to be allowed to test its meat and advertise is as safe, the large meat companies would have to follow suit, performing expensive tests on their much much larger herds.
In addition, according to the USDA, which regulates the testing, widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry.
Um, Washington state, Texas, Alabama...?
So a false positive may hurt the meat industry, but a positive hit doesn't? I don't understand... Japan is the number one importer of U.S. beef, and after the 2003 finding of BSE in America, Japan seized imports of U.S. beef for two years, until giving in to political pressure from the U.S..
Is the USDA thinking that a mere 3 cases of BSE within the continental United States (compared to over 180,000 cases in the United Kingdom) is not substantial enough to warrant the initiation of necessary precautions to counter even the possibility of an outbreak of BSE in the American meat industry? An outbreak, mind you, that would cost the American meat industry substantially more than the testing of cows for the disease. This is America we're talking about, the land of lawsuits. Upon the first death of a meateater, and subsequent lawsuit, due to variant Creuztfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), a fatal disease in humans which BSE is noted to cause in humans, the American meat industry stands to lose quite a bit of money and business. There has already been one death linked to BSE-related vCJD in the United States, but that victim had acquired the disease upon living or visiting the United Kingdom. As a simpler description, vCJD is a brain-wasting disease, and a nasty one at that.
To add to the head-scratching here, keep in mind that in March 2007, a federal judge ruled that such tests must be allowed. The law was to take effect a few days ago, on June 1st, but the USDA appealed.
Is the Bush Administration and the USDA looking out for your best interest and health, or are they leaning towards the companies, the money contributors?
Read more about bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_cow_disease
Sources:
Daily Kos http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/30/143539/136
.commonsense http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/e_coli_conservatism_19_ne_plus_ultra
International Herald Tribune http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/29/america/NA-GEN-US-Mad-Cow.php
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