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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/6/1
Checking up on the news sources for this story, it's almost amusing to note that this story first "broke" on a foreign Yahoo! news site (Singaporean, in fact), and as it started getting carried by US news sites, more mealy-mouthed denials and smoke-blowing are getting included.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/050611/1/3
"US announces a case of mad-cow disease" (Actually, I do kinda doubt that the US did in fact announce it. Neither can I seem to find that Washington Post news article now.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/11/natio
"Government Is Checking Possible Case of Mad Cow"
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=sto
"Feds Say No New Health Risk of Mad Cow"
The emphasis is also how the animal was a "downer" and never got into the US food supply. The fucking joke is that this animal died in November, and in the US, less than 1% of the cattle in the US are actually tested. (In Europe and Japan, the percentage of their cattle tested is in the double digits. I don't even want to go into how the slaughter process here compares to Europe.) The US also has the shortest time between a calf being born, and the adult cow being killed, and the end product reaching family tables. (Thank you, antibiotics and hormones! While we're at it, kiddos, look into what the cattle are eating to get fattened up for slaughter.) By the time test results come back from anything, the rest of the same group of animals has been processed, mixed in with the meat from other batches of animals, and shipped out to grocers. Jason and I were just talking about BSE last night, and coincidentally I surfed online later, saw some photos of downers and almost started crying.
I have to stop writing now.
June 11 2005, 15:05:02 UTC 6 years ago
The most astonishing aspect of the whole Mad Cow thang is that the USDA is unwilling to issue a total ban on cannibalistic feeding practices. It's the proven cause of Mad Cow and many other prion-based diseases, but still, rended slaughterhouse bits get fed to cattle. Why? Because it's cheap and we have to keep the price of beef low or....we'll all become vegans, I guess?
The sesond-most astonishing aspect? The USDA actually made it illegal for ranchers to test their cattle and make claims about their beef being tested for BSE. The ranch that my store buys from, Creekstone, has been trying to legally test their cattle for Mad Cow for over a year now because they lost so much business in the world-wide ban on US beef due to the last Mad Cow case in 2003. The USDA is insane. It's just hair-pulling, eyes-pinwheeling, jabbering-in-the-night nutsy koo-koo.
I just love it that this newest Mad Cow cow came from Texas, whose beef industry sued Oprah for saying she wouldn't eat US beef anymore during a spot she was doing on Mad Cow.
I'd laugh if it weren't so damn pathetic. (But I'm glad someone else is paying attention to this crap!)
June 11 2005, 15:06:03 UTC 6 years ago
June 11 2005, 15:10:15 UTC 6 years ago
June 11 2005, 15:15:27 UTC 6 years ago
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Pile the corpses high and deep, as long as the money keeps flowing into their hands they'll be able to build mansions high enough that they don't have to smell the stench.
June 11 2005, 15:32:29 UTC 6 years ago
Agreed, but the Clinton administration didn't exactly offer up a reality-based response to Mad Cow either. It wasn't until 1997 that cannibalistic feeding practices were limited by the USDA, and even then, it wasn't a total ban. Clinotn's AgSec Dan Glickman also allowed GMOs, irradiation, and even municipal sewage sludge to be used in its version of organic regulations, to make it easier for corporate ag to use the organic label.
The USDA *is* corrupt, as you say - but its corruption isn't traceable to Bush.
June 11 2005, 15:37:49 UTC 6 years ago
On the other hand the Bush administration seems to HATE the environment and public health, instead of grudgingly agreeing to mutilate it for the people who pay for all those nice dinners and lovely TV Advertisements.
June 14 2005, 13:14:56 UTC 6 years ago
(my current geopolitical thinking: it's due to sheer size and thus total european unification=BAD THING.)
June 11 2005, 18:10:06 UTC 6 years ago
What?! That's no excuse for you to weasel out of posting about this subject, Barth! I was looking forward to you saying something about it! Now I have to read my own comments thread! Ach!
June 11 2005, 20:28:45 UTC 6 years ago
OK, I'll post more later if I can.