BSE: USDA Rejected Testing Scheme for Mad Cow

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Epidemics

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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.

David Louthan

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 petition

White 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 & Parkinson's?

Mad Cow Disease - setting the record straight on BSE

Educating Rida - An underground, eco-detective journey into the origins of spongiform disease

Animal Pharm

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: