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Global Warning - Jun 26, 2005 - Printable Version
- Are You Really Going to Eat That?
by Robin Buckallew
Reading the news these days is disheartening. War, famine, pestilence - it seems we have it all. Now, the very food we eat threatens to attack us, as the United States government releases the news of a second positive test for Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis (BSE), fondly known as "mad cow" disease. The first case, announced over a year ago, was in a cow that had entered this country from Canada, and our government proudly announced that they had stopped it before it entered the United States beef supply. This one, it seems, was closer to home, discovered in a cow slaughtered in Texas. The test was confirmed by a laboratory in England after the laboratory in the United States had given conflicting results. The cow had been pinpointed as having the disease seven months earlier. In spite of all the distress that a mad cow in the United States herds might be causing you, there is no need to worry. The government assures us that the spotting of this particular "mad cow" proves that our beef supply is safe, and that our testing will spot diseased cows before they enter our meat supply. So, we all breathe a sigh of relief, and turn hungrily to that juicy cheeseburger we have been looking at in fear. We are safe if the government says so. We have nothing to fear, and we can go on buying our beef, paying our taxes, and eating without worry. But is the government telling us the truth? Let's look at what the government is telling us. First of all, they tell us that we really don't have much need to worry, since BSE arises from the feeding of cow waste products back to living cows. This was being done by many cattle growers in Great Britain and in the United States to find a way to turn what once was simply wasted tissue into new, living cow tissue. The additional protein in their feed caused them to grow faster, allowing the meat producers to garner greater profits more quickly. Great Britain finally banned this practice, after several deaths from the human variant of BSE, Creutzfeld Jacobs disease, a disease involving deteriorating mental functioning and leading to death. The public outcry in England finally led to government action. Our own government assures us that they banned this practice in 1997. So, how effective has this ban been? The government assures us that the cow that has recently been identified with BSE was born prior to the feeding ban, and that there is no reason to believe that younger cows will have any problems at all. The ban, they assure us, will keep our beef supply safe. The truth is perhaps a bit more complicated than that. Numerous reporters have investigated this ban, and have found that the cattle waste, while no longer being added to cattle feed, is now being added to chicken feed to help chickens pack on the pounds with additional protein. This should be fine, since they believe that BSE is not transmissible to chickens. The main problem with this practice? After slaughter and processing of the chicken for its desirable parts, the chicken waste is then ground up and added to cattle feed. The ban, in other words, is a ban in name only. The cattle waste still gets into the cow, but through a more indirect route. Another cautionary note to this tale is sounded in the story by the AP that reported that, while waste from diseased (also known as "downer") cattle is supposed to be kept in separate waste barrels from the waste of healthy cattle, due to some cruel twist of fate, the contents of the two barrels accidentally got combined.
It is also worthwhile to look further at the government claim that catching this diseased cow before it got into the food supply is proof that our system of testing is working. Catching one cow could be proof indeed, if there is only one diseased cow in the United States beef supply. Unfortunately, this is something we can't possibly know. The United States Department of Agriculture is testing only a very small percentage of the beef supply - currently only about one in every 90 cows that are presented for slaughter (approximately 1%). This contrasts sharply with practices in Great Britain, which tests one in every four cattle, and Japan, which tests 100% of the cattle that are slaughtered in that country. In addition, the test that has been considered the "gold standard" test by the United States Department of Agriculture first came up negative in the testing on this animal, contradicting an experimental test done by the same laboratory on the same cow, which came up positive. Later testing using the testing method used in Great Britain confirmed the positive test. Many critics of our system of testing are accusing the system of being woefully inadequate as a safeguard for our nation's beef consumers. In addition, the government kept the information of the positive test secret for seven months, with testing confirmed in November of 2004, but unknown to the public until last week. The government denies any deliberate cover up, and stated that the folks at the lab never mentioned it to anyone higher up, because the positive result was from an "experimental" test. Since they didn't know for sure that it was positive, the story goes, there was really no reason to report it to the officials higher up the line.
After the first reported case of BSE in the United States, Japan, along with 35 other countries, put a moratorium on beef products from the United States, much to the consternation of the American beef industry. Japan has been under considerable pressure lately to lift the moratorium, and allow our cattle growers once again to sell to that large and growing market. This latest news has generated great criticism from the Japanese government (which, as you will recall, tests 100% of its cows), alleging that our system of testing is inadequate. It appears unlikely they will be in any hurry to lift the ban on US beef. Worldwide, United States agricultural practices are under heavy fire from our trading partners, not just for the insufficiency of our mad cow testing, but for many other practices on which we have insufficient safeguards to reassure the world of the safety of our food supply. Many countries are rejecting imports from the US, even in times when it becomes much more difficult to feed their populace without the imports. Many governments, it seems, feels they have a responsibility not to serve their citizens food that is potentially harmful to them.
After the moratorium was imposed, some independent farmers expressed concern with the closing of these large and lucrative markets, and indicated that they would begin to test 100% of their herds at their own expense. This seemed to them like the most rational, enlightened self-interest, free-market solution they could come up with. The "free-market fundamentalists" in the US government disagreed. The United States government, in its infinite wisdom, threatened to bring legal action against any farmer that began to implement such a practice. They refused to allow the farmers to certify that their beef was fully tested and disease free, because to indicate that their beef was disease free, they contended, would imply that other growers beef might NOT be disease free, and might give the American consumer doubts about buying the beef that wasn't so tested and labeled. In fact, this is the very same argument they use against all forms of labeling to inform us that our food is pesticide-free, preservative-free, or not genetically altered. It seems that a free market of fully informed citizens might make it possible for American consumers to avoid products that they find distasteful or consider risky.
The government tells us "Don't worry, be happy". Eat, drink and be merry, serve your children a healthy dose of beef for dinner. So, is our government lying to us? Are they trying to cover up for practices that have favored the protection of enormous profit over the protection of the health of the average citizen? Can we safely feed ourselves and our children without worry, as the government assures us? What is in the food on our plates? Ask the questions. Demand the answers. Stand on the doorsteps of our elected leaders, and shout at the top of your lungs if you have to. Surely we deserve as safe a food supply as the British and the Japanese.
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