April 22, 2004

You're not allowed to test for mad cow, says the USDA. The Washington Post reports that a Kansas beef company which wanted to fully protect the integrity of its cattle was banned by the US Department of Agriculture from doing its own test work. The USDA, defending its policy, said testing "could imply there is a safety issue with American beef". But might mad cow already be alive and well in the US?
posted by rolypolyman 20 years ago
  • Previous discussion here. But not a repost.
  • Well if there ISN'T a safety issue, then this testing would certainly confirm it, now wouldn't it? Of course, USDA being in the corporate pockets, said pockets might be a tad concerned that a "few" beefies could "possibly" come up positive and screw up their major profits from feeding cattle such yummy items such as ground up animal carcasses and processed wood fiber. Yummy! Assholes. This is why I eat as little meat as possible. Dang, and I really like the stuff. Got to get that garden in as soon as it stops freezing.
  • This is why I eat as little meat as possible. Just for the record, you can't get mad cow from steak or hamburger. Only by eating nervous system tissue from an infected cow - brains, spinal cord, and what not. So chow down, BlueHorse! Just stay away from the brain sammitches.
  • Fes, you obviously didn't get the same kind of burgers as I did at school: grey (except for when the inside was undercooked and still sort of pink); rubbery; made of 100% mechanically recovered meat. Oh, and this was in England. Fortunately, I found the burgers too disgusting to eat. I don't doubt that the US has mad cow, along with Canada, Japan, the whole of Europe, and probably a whole lot of other places. I suspect that banning testing is more about creating plausible deniability, personaly.
  • T-bone steaks inherently contain spinal tissue -- it is sawed right through the vertabrae. Also the saws are pretty efficient at getting nervous tissue everywhere during the butchering process. The process is not as sanitary as it sounds.
  • I will retract that, as the source does say that the spinal cord is supposed to be removed. Still though I'm not confident every bit of nervous tissue can be removed.
  • Fes, how do you know no brain or spinal tissue makes it into the meat? Small risk, I know, but it's a small risk of getting brain-eating zombie disease. In light of the fact that the USDA and the cow industry have no interest in actually protecting us from brain-eating zombie disease, I've switched from macaroni-and-ground-meat casserole to tuna-noodle casserole. I needed more mercury in my diet, anyway.
  • PR Watch has done some excellent work on Mad Cow, especially their book Mad Cow USA (which you can download as a PDF for free). See also the disinfopedia page on Mad Cow.
  • Ah, well, if the worst predictions are true, we're all boned anyway. Enjoy what little life you have left before you succumb to a painful, incoherent death. I, for one, welcome our new Spongiform overlords and hope they will be quite comfortable in my brain. My (female) friend sitting next to me just said, "How do you spot a mad cow? Go into a gynecologists' office." Ahh, sexit humor. Gotta love it!
  • "gynecologist" and "sexist" stupid spelling...
  • rolypolyman, I can't access the article thru your link (reg. required), so instead I used this. In light of the fact that the USDA and the cow industry have no interest in actually protecting us from brain-eating zombie disease, I've switched from macaroni-and-ground-meat casserole to tuna-noodle casserole. I needed more mercury in my diet, anyway. It does seem that at least Creekstone Farms (the company in question) is genuinely interested in the safety of it's costumers (for whatever reason it may be). ...Yeah, yeah, I will take my pro-corporate mini-screeds somewhere else.
  • I'm kidding, I'm not really accusing you, YES YOU ALL, from being pinko-communists. :) :) :) :)
  • Okay, but can I put my costume back on now, Zemat? ;) I stopped eating red meat while I lived in the US -- not out of fear of brain-eating zombie disease (thanks, dirigibleman), but because US beef tastes really, really bad. I assume it's the grain-based diet and/or hormones. NZ beef is a zillion times better. Or just very different -- for all I know, Americans would hate NZ beef. At least I know I'm safe from zombieness.
  • tracicle: Back when I worked for one of the cattle ranchers, I used to buy a grass-fed beef from him and chow down knowing that it was only fed on sweet yummy grass all it's tender juicy life (except for a little pure golden corn the last 6 weeks or so) Now THAT was some tasty stuff. Much, MUCH, different from the usual US disgusting over-the-counter dyed putrescence. Wouldn't be at all surprised that what you're actually tasting is the real thing, without all the additives. That's because we all know NZ is a backwards country that hasn't progressed to adding artifical unhealthy crap to the beef diet. /backhanded compliment *rummages around looking for that Zombie thread I saw on AskMeFi
  • It does seem that at least Creekstone Farms (the company in question) is genuinely interested in the safety of it's costumers (for whatever reason it may be). That's a good point. My uncle owns a feed store, so my mom's side of the family gets all of their meat from the local farmers. It's light years better than flourescent red stuff I'm stuck with out here.
  • *prefacing comment: I've been a vegetarian for nearly 15 years. If the beef industry were serious about assuring world markets that American beef was safe, they would have their lobbying groups take the position that the only safe meat is a universally tested meat. Also that only healthy, robust animals "produce" safe meat. And the USDA would go along with that, I guarantee you, and before long, we'd have labels certifying the meat you buy was tested at the slaughterhouse and passed with flying colors. Never gonna happen.
  • See, there's this disease we've found in your food supply. We managed to catch the only instance of the disease in our country. Really. Honest. We know it's not there anymore. Yep, all gone.Yes, we know there's a test for the disease but that would be too expensive. That being said, who the hell is going to step up and be the next Upton Sinclair? "Man is an evasive beast, given to cultivating strange notions about himself. He is humiliated by his simian ancestry, and tries to deny his animal nature, to persuade himself that he is not limited by its weaknesses nor concerned in its fate. And this impulse may be harmless, when it is genuine. But what are we to say when we see the formulas of heroic self-deception made use of by unheroic self-indulgence? What are we to say when we see asceticism preached to the poor by fat and comfortable retainers of the rich? What are we to say when we see idealism become hypocrisy, and the moral and spiritual heritage of mankind twisted to the knavish purposes of class-cruelty and greed?
  • Sadly, the latest Upton Sinclair has already written a book. It's a pretty good overview of food processing and agribusiness. It made me a vegetarian for about 2 weeks.
  • Moo.
  • The scourge of E. coli conservatism (Not really about mad cow, but it's such a catchy phrase.)