U.S. officials have stumbled down a meandering trail
of denials regarding this deadly meat-borne disease. When mad-cow disease
was first detected in British cattle, the official line was that the
brain-destroying disease could not be transferred from cows to humans, so
not to worry — eat your burgers.
Then, when Brits began to die after eating the meat
of contaminated cows, the line was that, well, yes, in Britain, but not in
the United States, where we have regulatory firewalls to protect the public
from cow madness. But, oops, recently officials had to admit that a mad cow
had been found here — apparently, the government’s firewall is
nothing but a picket fence. Not to worry, though, said officialdom, for
this was a Canadian cow, and, besides, it’s only one — so keep
eating your burgers.
Now we learn that all is definitely not well. Last
November, Agriculture Department officials found another cow that appeared
to have the disease, but — good news, they said — we
applied our “gold standard” test and it was negative, so all
clear, eat your burgers. But such watchdogs as Consumers Union said this
test was inadequate and that another, more sophisticated one should be
performed.
USDA’s internal watchdog ordered the extra test
done, and the cow was found to have the disease. Well, shrugged Ag
Secretary Mike Johanns, “Science is ever-evolving.” Yes, but
our policy-makers are not. Johanns essentially defended the status quo on
behalf of beef-industry giants, saying, in essence: Eat your burgers.
The denials and stalling must stop. All cows over 20
months old must be tested, and the industry must be banned from feeding any
cow parts to cattle, including a ban on feeding cattle blood to calves. For
more info, go to www.notinmyfood.org.
This article appears in Jul 14-20, 2005.
