USDA Scales Back Mad-Cow Testing

[NorthernSun]

The Agriculture Department is scaling back its testing program for mad cow disease to about one-tenth of what it has been for the past 2 1/2 years.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said there is little justification for the current level, which rose to about 1,000 tests a day after the first U.S. case of mad cow disease in 2003.

The new level will be around 110 tests per day.

http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/feeds/ap/2006/07/20/ap2892884.html

[PerceptionManagement]

1. Of course they are! This is Republican America! Who needs safe food?

Those prion will live in your brain for years before you actually GET Mad Cow!

[daleo]

2. Canada has increased its testing (not nearly enough)

And we are up to about mad cow #6. So, I think the USDA is going by the principle "don't look, don't find".

[SledDriver]

3. How could anyone have forseen...

the Mad Cow Disease epidemic? :shrug:

[uppityperson]

4. oh christ, of course they will cut it back

it help maintain public safety, don't need that anymore.

[onehandle]

5. Smart people cut back beef consumption. nt

[thecrow]

6. We've pretty much switched to lamb here

and generally switched to not not eating as much meat.
Maybe we;ll go totally vegetarian.
Remember that beef isn't just on your plate; many products use beef products as ingredients.
READ YOUR LABELS!

[Lorien]

37. I've read that sheep are even more susceptible to the disease

personally, I've sworn off all mammals for the past 11 years. The way animals are kept, fed and slaughtered in this country is vile; not healthy for any of us.Poultry is nearly as bad.

About the only "safe" mammal out there is grass raised bison. It's easy on the environment and far leaner than beef. Beef production is also the #1 cause of rainforest destruction, which is a grave threat to the survival of all life on earth.

[nosmokes]

7. if they don't test for it, they can't find it so it's not there.

no tests, no BSE. simple science, the bushco way.

[w4rma]

8. This is why most foriegn markets won't buy U.S. beef.

The beef industry is losing **a lot** of money by not testing, therefore I think they are trying to coverup an epidemic of mad cow in our supply.

Smart people won't touch beef until at least 6 months after they start fully testing.

[depakid]

9. I won't buy it either!

BSE has been in the US meat supply for at least a decade- and probably longer.

The only real question I have is how many tens of thousands of CJD cases we're going to see down the line- and what the clusters and epi curves will look like.

[LiberalHeart]

10. Agriculture Department to Reduce Mad Cow Testing by About 90 Percent

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Agriculture Department is cutting its tests for mad cow disease by about 90%, drawing protests from consumer groups. The current testing level -- 1,000 each day -- reflects the heightened concern that followed the discovery in December 2003 of mad cow disease in the United States. Since then, tests have turned up two more cases of the disease, known medically as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.

http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=5177131

[Taverner]

11. Stupid...bloody stupid.

[Javaman]

12. I guess they want a world of swiss cheesed brained idiots...

but then again, that is what our elected officials are anyway.

[geomon666]

19. Well I guess since they can't convince people to be Bush supporters...

By god they're going to make them.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Becauseif we pretend it doesn't exist.. it doesn't!

[cornermouse]

14. Discovery of mad cow disease is costing the meatpacking companies money.

Between people who might become afraid to buy beef and foreign buyers refusing to buy U.S. processed beef, they're losing money; therefore testing must stop. Surely you can see the logic in that?

[smoogatz]

15. That's why we only buy locally raised, certified organic beef.

It costs, and we don't eat a whole lot of it, but damn is it tasty (WAY better than the watery, hormone-laced, carbon-monoxide infused specimens you buy at the SuperDuperMart), and we know what it eats and how it's processed. Not 100% guaranteed mad-cow free, but pretty damn close.

[ecoalex]

16. 10-4 Buy only organic grass fed beef

Don't buy any beef that has been fed grain, unless it was made on the farm.Ask questions of the producer. I invite my customers to come to the farm, see the steer before they get it in a box packaged. Food should be a personal experience, knowing the producer and their practices, cleanliness, health of the animals.

[theophilus]

18. How do I locate safe beef? In my area, that is......n/t

[smoogatz]

25. We're lucky to have an excellent all-organic coop

in our area that acts as a distributor for local farmers (they also do cheese, milk, eggs, in-season produce, and some unusual stuff like buffalo and farm-elk). But if you have a farmer's market in your town, that's a pretty good place to start.

[smoogatz]

24. Yep.

We're looking to go in with our neighbors on a 1/2 steer pretty soon. Just got to make some space in the chest freezer downstairs...

[Lindacooks]

17. Yup. Totally consistent with repuke responses to problems.

First, blame it on somebody else. Then hold a press conference saying you're going to fix it. Then slash funding for the fixes.

[the other one]

20. Good. Another reason to go vegetarian.

Meat is murder.

Have a great day.:)

[MountainLaurel]

21. Were they testing to begin with?

Other than cows who were already sick?

[w4rma]

23. No. I read a couple of years ago that they forced a company to *not* test

their own beef which they wanted to do so that they could sell to Japan.

[BadgerKid]

26. There was a private farmer

(last year?) who was reported as willing to test his herd at his own expense but was barred.

[MountainLaurel]

28. I thought as much

Sigh.

[w4rma]

22. This is why most foriegn markets won't buy U.S. beef.

The beef industry is losing **a lot** of money by not testing, therefore I think they are trying to coverup an epidemic of mad cow in our supply.

Smart people won't touch beef until at least 6 months after they start fully testing.

[VegasWolf]

27. This is also why Americans shouldn't buy US beef. nt

[warrens]

29. 1000 a day was on 1 percent

AND it was completely voluntary (no punishment for failing to report) AND it was not adequately random AND they gutted the "firewalls" of SRM removal (getting rid of the dangerous parts of older cattle) and a feed ban, which still allows poultry litter, which includes tons of spilled chicken feed, into cattle feed. And ground up cattle parts into Chicken feed, completely circumventing the intent of a feed ban in the first place, since it only takes a fraction of a gram of infected meat to spread the disease and...and....and

There are so many ands, I can't list them all. But this is all driven by politics and greed, not science.

[oscar111]

30. Vegetarians live longer. Shun beef

I dont like the cuts... but aside from all that, we should not be eating beef.

Plenty of protein from beans. I have seen the science. Convinced me.. tho i am not an expert.

Read.. Food First book.

comments?

[pitohui]

31. vegetarians don't live longer, facts not in evidence

food fussers have a greatly decreased chance of a normal lifespan once their obsessiveness abt food progresses to anorexia and bulimia, which kills girls and women every day to no one's great alarm

mad cow has killed what? 200 people, mostly brits, in over 2 decades? i'll take my chances

beans are not easily digested by all and are not a practical source of protein for all, soy is worse as is causes quite a lot of allergies and even exacerbates some medical conditions


p.s. i do agree all cows should be tested, however, it has become abundantly obvious that only a tiny minority of people have are susceptible to mad cow disease, great britain was supposed to be completely devastated by now by all the cases, the predictions of course turned out to be thoroughly wrong, most human brains are clearly resistant to this infection

[robcon]

36. Sounds right to me.

Mad cow was always overhyped, IMO.

[leesa]

32. Don't ask. Don't Tell. Don't Look.

And Americans like to pretend their food supply is safe. They aren't testing because "mad cow" is prevalent in the beef supply. Are you OK with that?

[VegasWolf]

33. This is the kind of thinking you get when you elect a cokehead for

President. America's first cokehead president.

[Lisa]

34. I guess that's one way to avoid bad publicity -- don't look for cases!

Kind of the logical step beyond the situation where a drunk guy only looks for his car keys under lamp-posts (where there's sufficient light).

I suppose it makes perfect sense to the Bushies, where ANY environmental or public health problems are dismissed as mere scaremongering by liberal scientist types.

[DemGa]

35. So they admit it's in the cows, just not too much?

"It's time that our surveillance efforts reflect what we now know is a very, very low level of BSE in the United States," Johanns said.

[stepnw1f]

38. Half This Country is Brainless Anyways

they voted for Bush.

[struggle4progress]

39. kick

:kick: