How Now, Mad Cow
By Greg Lawson -
[email protected]
Steer Clear of Beef. That would be my message to anyone concerned about
food safety. Ever since mad cow disease was discovered in the US on
December 22, government officials have seen it as their first priority
to reassure the public that our food supply is completely safe. They
tell us that they are taking every possible measure to prevent the
spread of BSE, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. But all I
have seen so far is the spread of BS.
On Christmas Eve, the Food and Drug Administration
issued the following statement in a press release...."This one
discovered case of BSE does not mean that the US food supply is any less
safe today than it was yesterday." Hmm, that's true, but it's also a bit
misleading. This utterance by the FDA does not mean that the federal
government is any less truthful about the safety of our food supply
today than it was yesterday.
One early tactic by the federal government to minimize
the impact of the discovery of BSE, was to accuse the cow of being an
immigrant. "This cow came from Canada." The American public can breathe
a sigh of relief, our cows are sane, this was a foreigner. This almost
makes it seem like it was an attack by a bovine suicide terrorist. The
truth is, it is very easy for cows from Canada and Mexico to enter our
borders, in fact, it is much easier to get a green card to work in the
US if you are a cow instead of a human.
It could have just as easily been a domestic cow instead
of a foreigner who developed BSE. Feed producers have been ignoring the
1997 ban on feeding cows back to cows. A report from the General
Accounting Office issued in 2002 found some ranchers in the US still
violate the FDA�s feed ban and do feed cow tissue to cattle. The GAO
concluded: "While (mad cow disease) has not been found in the United
States, federal actions do not sufficiently ensure that all (mad
cow)-infected animals or products are kept out or that if (mad cow) were
found, it would be detected promptly and not spread to other cattle
through animal feed or enter the human food supply."
Federal officials continue to make the false statement
that muscle cuts of beef present no risk, that prions, the malformed
proteins that cause BSE, are only found in the spinal cord and brain. In
2002, Dr. Stanley Prusiner, the scientist who won the Nobel Prize in
Medicine for his discovery of prions, found that muscle cells could
contain prions. Similar research in Germany in 2003 confirmed these
results that there can be prions in the muscles of animals.
The discovery of BSE in our country has shown how
ineffective our food recall system is. It is now almost a month since
the meat from this infected cow was distributed and yet some media
outlets in California and other states are just now announcing the
recalled items. There is no doubt that some of the meat has already been
consumed.
One good thing has come out of all this. On December
30th, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman announced a ban on the
slaughter of downer cows for human consumption. Animal advocates had
been working for the last decade to make this reform. It is a small step
in cleaning up the US food supply, but it will mean less suffering for
the animals who had been pulled off trucks with ropes at the
slaughterhouses. Perhaps ranchers will take more precautions to prevent
downer cows in the first place.
Hopefully another reform that will take place will be
more testing. We only test for BSE in 20,000 cows of the 33 million we
slaughter each year. It�s no wonder we haven�t discovered a case until
now. Japan tests every cow they slaughter and have found nine cases so
far, some in young animals who showed no symptoms. More testing may show
that the US does have a problem with it�s food supply after all.
It is bizarre that mad cow disease causes this much
panic in consumers and investors. Since BSE was discovered in Great
Britain in the mid 1980s, only 153 people have died from the disease
worldwide. Over 5000 people die each year in the US from E. coli,
listeria, salmonella and other pathogens found in meat and millions more
are sickened. This is a much better reason to give up meat than mad cow
disease.
Compassion is the best reason of all to go vegan.
Go on to An Unlikely Angel
Return to 4 January 2004 Issue
Return to Newsletters
** Fair Use Notice**
This document may contain copyrighted material, use of which has not been
specifically authorized by the copyright owners. I believe that this
not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the
copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your
own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright
owner.
