July 25, 2004
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Mad Cow 'Firewalls' Just a Smokescreen
by Thomas O. McGarity
July 22, 2004
USDA shredded its own restrictions on imports when it covertly permitted U.S. meatpackers to import 33 million pounds of beef from Canada between September 2003 and May 2004 despite Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman's August 2003 announcement that she was extending a ban on such meat.
The number of cattle tested for mad cow disease in the United States is still pitifully small. Indeed, the program remains entirely voluntary.
Most troublesome of all is an obscure, but gaping loophole in the firewall governing the handling of 'specified risk materials' from slaughtered cattle. The regulation permits industry to elect not to implement rigorous standards for specific controls, simply by asserting - as almost all establishments apparently have - that mad cow disease is unlikely to be a problem in their facility.
They are required to have a written plan, but not to follow it. Neither are they required to check for mad cow, or to perform simple tests for brain and other risky nervous system tissues in edible meat.
Comments (3)
hehe. that comic made me laugh.
KTO
thanks for the link, it was rather helpful! Hopefully I can take advantage of it later this week. As for your post. Yeah I think we need a better system for checking the cows for madcow. A new system will be costly now, but in the long run it will save money by helping to prevent the problems associated with such an epidemic.
lol- just invisioning barbra the cow as a cross dressing jew as well- oh geez! that's classic!
ciao
~kenzie
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