So the case of "mad cow" has been confirmed...sort of. I have not seen the report from the lab in the UK, which has the authoritative tests make it into the media yet; but they'll report sometime soon, I'm sure. Not being a carnivore any more, I am not concerned with the outcome of the tests for my sake, but there are lots (millions) of folks, including my family who are of the carnivorous bent and are affected. Now from the Farm and Market Bureau of the 1600 Crew we see this:
As the American beef industry struggles with its first case of mad cow disease, the Department of Agriculture is debating whether to do far more screening of meat and change the way meat from suspect animals is used, department officials say.
The officials declined to say exactly what they would recommend, but acknowledged that European and Japanese regulators screened millions of animals using tests that take only three hours, fast enough to stop diseased carcasses from being cut up for food.
Well, as we all know, the 1600 Ag Dept will do exactly whatever the beef industry lobbyists tell them to do, or how to do it. It would be funny in that sort of sad way to see them cave en masse to the beef lobbyists on "K" street, it would show their truest colors: Bought and Paid for.
I still don't understand how that cow contracted BSE, I thought that the feeding of "animal parts" was banned. Did it somehow "slip by" our extra-rigorous and highly paid USDA meat inspection folks...whom I am sure that the 1600 Crew wants to cut by at least 90% to satisfy that friend o'Islam, Grover Norquist.
posted by Jo Fish on 12.26.03 at 09:30 AM
Comments:
Want to really be convinced to stop eating meat?
From the Seattle PI:
"U.S. inspectors have tested fewer than 30,000 of the about 300 million animals slaughtered in the past nine years, and get results days or weeks later.
But the U.S. system was never intended to keep sick animals from reaching the public's refrigerators, said Dr. Ron DeHaven, the agriculture department's chief veterinarian.
It is "a surveillance system, not a food-safety test," he said in an interview Wednesday.
Statistically, it is meant only to assure finding the disease if it exists in one in 1 million animals, and only after slaughter."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/154118_screening26.html
posted by: Ron on 12.26.03 at 10:58 AM [permalink]
Feeding animals animal parts is banned, but compliance is estimated to be only around 95%. Combine that with the quote inspections unquote process, and you've certainly got some holes that BSE can drive through.
posted by: Lex on 12.26.03 at 11:40 AM [permalink]
