BSE: USDA Rejected Testing Scheme for Mad Cow
According to Steve Michell's recent article published on UPI, the USDA contradicts its own policy in testing for Mad Cow Disease. It has actually rejected Creekstone Farms' proposal for testing its beef for export, calling the testing plan "scientifically unsound". The Consumers Union, along with 12 other advocacy groups --- including Public Citizen and the Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease Foundation --- sent USDA a letter [on April 19] urging it to reverse its position on the Creekstone proposal.
For a timeline on mad cow (BSE) and related diseases in the US, see this page of the Organic Consumers Association.
In the article "Chasing the Ghost of the Mad Cow", David Louthan, the butcher who killed the only officially confirmed cow with BSE, is venting his desperation at what he calls the USDA cover-up and at the public indifference to the issue of meat perhaps not being all that healthy to eat these days...
Of course if scientific honesty had not gone out of the window already, we might be able to seek out the REAL reason cows get sick instead of having to hide the data "case by case". Mark Purdey, an organic farmer turned eco-detective, has all but given us the answer - only to be rejected by "official science". See his statement on the US Mad Cow case here.
Book: Animal Pharm by Mark Purdey
One Mans Struggle to Discover the Truth about Mad Cow Disease and Variant CJD
Mark Purdey's life changed one day in 1984 when a Ministry of Agriculture inspector told him he must administer a toxic organophosphate pesticide to his dairy herd.
Passionately committed to organic farming and convinced of the harmful effects of chemicals in the environment, he refused to comply.'It was as if my whole life became focused,' he explained later. Before they had a chance to prosecute, Purdey took the Ministry to Court and won his case.
These experiences caused him to challenge the orthodox line on the origins of Mad Cow Disease and its human counterpart, variant CJD. Could the insecticide used in the official programme have precipitated the disease? (http://www.markpurdey.com/)
April 18, 2004
Chasing the Ghost of the Mad Cow
Your silence is a vote for high priced contaminated beef.
My name is Dave Louthan and I'm the guy who shot the mad cow. I'm also the guy who dragged the USDA's lies out into the daylight for all to see.
I saw what they were up to in December so I put it all on the line to try and save some lives. I failed. Well not entirely. Japan and S.Korea listened to me. They wouldn't touch U.S. beef with a ten-foot pole.
When the U.S. Gov't sends a liar over there to talk they listen patiently to which ever idiot we send then they ask, " Is the meat tested"." Well no. We don't think testing the meat for a fatal disease is scientifically sound." " No thank you no diseased meat today."
Back here in the good ol' U.S.A we are eating beef as fast as they can kill it. The more the truth comes out about BSE the more people are willing to pay for it.
We are like a bunch of lemmings hurrying to the edge of the cliff. The consumer advocates say if you jump in you'll drown. The Gov't says only a few of you will drown and scientifically speaking that's an acceptable loss when you compare it to how much money the beef producers are going to make.
Now we are going to allow Canadian hamburger back in. Canada does even less BSE testing than we do and we don't do any. In a few days we will be allowing live cattle back in and we will also start killing down cows for human consumption.
That will put us right back to where we were before I killed the mad cow. The same cows eating the same feed and carrying the same disease. Nothing changed.
In the beginning I was very mad at Ann Veneman and Dr. DeHaven for lying to the American people about the BSE problem but I'm not anymore. They are only getting away with what you let them get away with.
I'm mad at the silent majority, the people that don't bother to get involved in the daily business of life. They are like bad parents that let their kids get away with murder. Literally.
If we only have a hand full of people standing up and saying, " No you can't do that." Of course the unruly children that run the gov't are going to try to get away with as much as possible.
Here's the deal. I'm out of gas. I have done everything I can think of. I've talked to everybody who will listen. I have squandered all of my family's savings on this crusade. I have gone back to work after chasing the ghost of the mad cow for 115 days.
I'm a long haul trucker by trade. This means I am going to be mostly out of touch with the Internet my main tool in this war. To those of you who listened and helped I thank you. To those of you who listened and did nothing don't complain when you or your loved ones are lying in the hospital dying of a very horrible disease.
You had a choice to make now and a chance to stop it now. Your silence is your vote. Disease on the other hand never misses an opportunity. Never. It doesn't care what is scientifically sound it will take who it wants when it wants to take them.
That hamburger surprise in the school lunch menu was made from old diary cows. Some of those cows have mad cow. Some of your kids will get mad cow from it. If it matters to you get on the phone to your congressman and don't stop calling until the law guarantees you that your kids are eating tested beef.
Thank you for your time friends.
See also:
USDA COVER-UP OF MAD COW CASES
The USDA has refused to respond to allegations that it has been covering up cases of Mad Cow disease in the U.S. for well over a decade. Lester Friedlander, a former USDA veterinarian, says he was told by USDA officials as far back as 1991 that if his testing laboratory ever found evidence of Mad Cow disease, he was to tell no one. He and other scientists say they know of cases where cows tested positive for the disease in laboratories but were ruled negative by the USDA. Mad cow is a concern to public health because humans can contract a fatal brain illness known as variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease from eating beef products contaminated with the mad cow pathogen.
TAKE ACTION! Sign the Mad Cow petitionWhite House may ease 'downer cattle' ban
April 15, 2005: WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Friday it may allow some injured cattle to be slaughtered for human food, easing a regulation that the Agriculture Department adopted 15 months ago after the nation's first case of mad cow disease.How Now, Mad Cow?
By Diane Farsetta, AlterNet. Posted December 23, 2004.
One year after the first case of mad cow disease in the US was confirmed, promised food safety reforms have yet to be instituted. And they never will be, if the cattle industry has its way.Cattle Ranchers Want Their Own Mad Cow Tests
A Second Test Shows Animal Did Not Have Mad Cow Disease
Mad Cow in the US - Dishonest Beef
Mad Cow Disease - setting the record straight on BSE
Educating Rida - An underground, eco-detective journey into the origins of spongiform disease
USDA Gag Order Placed On Federal Employees In Texas Mad Cow Case
Are FDA Mad Cow Guidelines Enough?
Agricultural Dept.'s Inspector General Calls Mad Cow Testing Plan Seriously Flawed - New York Times
New Study Reveals Gaping Holes in Mad Cow 'Firewall'
Don't Look Don't Find--Government Closes Top Mad Cow Laboratory
Why the USDA outlaws independent testing for mad cow disease
Report Raises Questions About US Cattle Feed Ban
March 15, 2005 - WASHINGTON - The effectiveness of the most important US safeguard against mad cow disease was questioned Monday when a government report accused the Food and Drug Administration of "overstating" feed mill compliance with a ban on cattle remains in animal feed. The Government Accountability Office report was released as many US lawmakers seek to prevent Canadian cattle from entering the United States because of concerns that its neighbour was not effectively enforcing its own animal feed ban.June 2005: Mad Cow USA - The Cover-Up Begins to Unravel
6/28/2005 USDA ATTEMPT TO BURY MAD COW FAILS - Another case of Mad Cow disease (BSE) in the United States has been confirmed. The cow, apparently from Texas, was originally slaughtered and pronounced free of BSE by the USDA in November 2004, under rather suspicious circumstances. Facing mounting criticism by public interest groups, including the OCA, Consumers Union, and the Center for Media and Democracy, the USDA finally allowed a UK lab to retest the brain, revealing that the animal did, indeed, have the fatal brain wasting disease. Despite warnings by scientists and bans on U.S. beef exports, the USDA still refuses to test more than a tiny fraction of U.S. cattle, and continues to allow the routine feeding of blood, manure, and slaughterhouse waste to farm animals. Consumers, responding to the fact that these risky practices are prohibited on organic farms, are turning in droves to organic and grass-fed beef. In 2004 organic beef sales increased by over 120% in the U.S.
Japan raises new fears about U.S. beef
Friday, July 15, 2005 - Associated Press
Tokyo — Japanese food safety regulators were questioning the safety of U.S. beef after a Ministry of Agriculture study showed nearly half of the 20 mad cow cases found in Japan would have passed unnoticed if tested under U.S. methods, officials said Friday.MAD COW USA: SHOOTING THE MESSENGER
In the wake of recent news reports that the government had attempted to cover-up another case of Mad Cow disease, an internal feud has erupted inside the USDA. The most recent case of Mad Cow Disease was detected in a Texas cow that was slaughtered in November of 2004. At that time, the USDA claimed tests for the disease on the suspect cow were negative and that the cow was healthy. But several weeks ago, after a public outcry by the OCA and other public interest groups and internal USDA accusations of improper testing, USDA Inspector General Phyllis K. Fong reopened the case and ordered new tests on the remains of that cow, the results of which turned out to be positive. The USDA has since admitted that its testing procedures are not stringent enough, but instead of creating policy that would upgrade testing for Mad Cow, the agency has begun to focus its energies on attacking Fong. This week, USDA Secretary Mike Johanns, who was appointed to his position by President Bush earlier this year, said Fong had no right to reopen this case and should not have implemented further tests for Mad Cow disease. According to Johanns, Fong's discovery of the second case of mad Cow disease in the U.S. is behavior that will not be tolerated within the agency.How to Bury a Mad Cow
The US mad cow testing system seems designed to cover up mad cow disease rather than find it. Other countries test most or all of their cattle before human consumption for food safety purposes. The United States tests a small percentage of the 36 million cattle a year slaughtered and put into the human and animal feed chain. Most animals infected with mad cow disease will look healthy and be slaughtered and put into the food system without testing.Meatpacker sues feds for the right to test its own herd for mad cow disease
(from unknownnews.org - link expired)
March 22, 2006
WASHINGTON -- A Kansas meatpacker has sparked an industry fight by proposing testing all the company's cattle for mad cow disease.JAPANESE OFFICIALS RESIGN OVER U.S. MAD COW DEBACLE
Despite new cases of Mad Cow disease surfacing in the U.S., Japan is reopening its borders to American beef. As a result of the policy decision half of the members of Japan's beef-safety government advisory panel have resigned. Morikazu Shinagawa, a researcher at the national Institute of Animal Health and a resigning member of the panel, told Kyodo News Service he "couldn't continue to work" on the panel because the conclusion to resume imports was preordained by the government. Japan banned U.S. beef imports in 2003 due to weak beef safety regulations in the U.S. While 100% of cows in Japan, aged 24 months and older, are tested for the Mad Cow disease, only 1% of the 35 million cattle slaughtered annually in the U.S. are tested. Japan recently caved to pressure from the Bush Administration and lift the ban on U.S. beef imports while appointing new "experts" to its beef safety advisory panel.USDA downplays seriousness of mad cow disease found in Alabama cow
MAY 2006 - Mad cow disease was recently confirmed in a cow in Alabama, according to two tests conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Even so, the USDA seems just as reluctant as usual to admit that U.S. herds continue to be infected with mad cow disease. Even though the results of this second test have been announced, there is a whole lot of spin from the USDA on trying to suppress the severity of this news -- so let me translate it into plain English for you.May 2007: U.S. on mad cow: Don't test all cattle
The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease. The Agriculture Department tests less than 1% of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. But Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows. A federal judge ruled in March that such tests must be allowed. The ruling was to take effect June 1, but the Agriculture Department said Tuesday it would appeal — effectively delaying the testing until the court challenge plays out.
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Sunday April 25 2004
updated on Monday December 13 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2004/04/25/bse_usda_rejected_testing_scheme_for_mad_cow.htm
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November 11, 2003 - Sepp Hasslberger
