Mad Cow Coverup in US

[sunnystarr]

Our Department of Agriculture held back reporting that a cow in Texas tested positive for Mad Cow disease seven months ago.

It makes one wonder how many cows here would test positive if tested. I say "if" due to the following quote from the article: http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/nyt62605.cfm

"Other countries use food-safety standards: Japan tests every cow, Europe tests about one in four.

The United States instead uses statistical models that it says will let a few tests detect the infection even in one cow in a million. It now tests one in 90; when the first mad cow case was found in 2003, it was testing one in 1,700.

With its statistical logic under regular attack, the United States has increased the number of tests to 388,000 in the past year, from 40 in 1990. But until recently, Mr. Johanns was discussing cutting back to 40,000 tests.

That system is "bizarre, illogical and woefully inadequate," said John Stauber, co-author of the book, "Mad Cow U.S.A.," which was first published in 1997.

"The bottom line," he said, "is that the U.S. government is afraid of putting in real food-safety testing because it would certainly find additional cases."

There are many articles and information at the main site: http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow.htm

With my mistrust of anything in this administration, I really fear for our safety at the most basic level ... our dinner tables.

[KlatooBNikto]

1. They can get away with it because the incubation period for the

Creuzfeld-Jakob human variant of mad cow disease is very long.But when those cows come home in about ten years, an epidemic will surely arrive.

[etherealtruth]

2. With out doubt ...

...It is certainly more important to protect INDUSTRY than human health.:sarcasm:

[undergroundpanther]

3. Corporations

have ruined our food supply
Our food is full of chemicals our air,water ect. is full of chemicals.
The FDA fails us because our giovernment is infested with corporations. Lobbyists, and money/profit rules over everything we do.

The american people are not willing to stop work and go on a general strike. Nor aewre they willing to face up that most likely the corporations running rampant hiding all sorts of toxic dangerous things behind" company secrets " Patents" "property""ownership" has allowed us to become poisioned.

I think americanss are fat and mentally ill because we are slowly being poisoned.Alot of things we consume and are told are safe are not. Aspartame Spenda.these "sweeteners" are drugs while a healthier alternative Stevia is restricted because the suggar lobby and atrtificial sweetebner companies are threatened by the competition.

Corporations are setyting up and feeding off our very health and misery. And you cannot excape this by"going organic" or by colon cleanisng or other new age treatments. We are being poisoned by a million digfferent toxins from a few sources our givernment protects ~FROM US..
Because
A healthy ,self confident,free,happy,self aware,population that has a strong connection to each other that is keeping corporations on ethical leashes is not as profiable as a traumatized,distressed, diseased, stressed out,obedient and clueless one is.


Someday I would hope people would value thier own lives over the idea of private corporate property"rights" and the myth of corporate personhood and the idea the law is applied to corporations fairly when corporations own the lawmakers...

But I'm not holding my breath.

[KlatooBNikto]

6. Long ago, Norman Mailer in a review of Rachel Carson's work

made exactly the same statement that big corporations have contaminated and poisoned our food, water and air.They have turned our planet into a shithouse of poisons and now pretend to be envirnomentally friendly.It is not for nothing that we see an increase in breast cancers,Alzheimer's,Autism and other diseases that were practically nonexistent just one generation ago.Wait another twenty years and you will see an epidemic of prion induced diseases like Creuzfeld-Jakob and others. They are criminals, that is all.

[converted_democrat]

17. I agree with you completely...........

I think you are abslolutely right.

[shockra]

22. Agreed.

Diet for a New America by John Robbins had a chapter on the number of pesticides in our food and their toxicity, and it was mindblowing. And absolutely criminal. So many deadly and known cancer-causing agents. One of them was known to cause cancer from the ingestion of just one *molecule*.

The toxins do accumulate up the food chain, however. They're retained in fat as well which makes animal products even more toxic. This stuff is absolutely everywhere. Deadly pesticides have been found in fish in the deepest parts of the oceans and animals in the remotest areas of the globe. And they don't biodegrade. They stay in the food chain and keep spreading.

http://www.inharmony.com/html/food___water.html

Seventy-one known carcinogenic pesticides are sprayed on food crops.

Eating lower on the food chain is one of the most important things you can do to reduce the effect of pesticides and hormones on your health. Less than 10 percent of food-based toxic chemicals are found in fruits, grains and vegetables. More than 90 percent are found in animal products. Factory farm animals have very high concentrations of toxic chemicals from a lifetime of eating feed that has been sprayed with biocides, as well as hormone injections.

In addition, pesticides build up to higher concentrations at each successively higher step in the food chain. Writes John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America:

"A worm living in the soil will store in its tissues all the pesticides it ever accumulates both from what it eats and what it absorbs through its skin. A bird, which eats worms, will thus ingest all the pesticides ever eaten or contracted by all the tens of thousands of worms it eats. At each successive step up the food chain, the concentration of toxic chemicals is greatly increased. Thus, a fish will accumulate in its body the total amount of poisons accumulated by all the thousands of smaller fish it eats. And each of these smaller fish will have collected in their flesh the total amount of toxic chemicals ever ingested by all the thousands of smaller fish they have eaten. It's an exponential progression. Predator birds who eat fish often ingest extremely high concentrations of these deadly substances."

[Bonhomme Richard]

4. It's easier to keep the lid on.........................

just a few test. I remember a company in Washington state, a year or two ago, that wanted to test all its cows and the Government wouldn't allow it.
Notice the test came out of the UK. Damn Brits can't keep their mouths shut.

[ihaveaquestion]

5. No Beef for YOU!

Or anyone else!

[KlatooBNikto]

7. It may come to that but I would not exclude even milk from that equation.

[ihaveaquestion]

13. Milk? Really?

Has it been found in milk? I know the agent is something called a "prion," but I don't know how they are disbursed, other than they are found in nerve tissue, making meat, particularly brains, infectious.

[KlatooBNikto]

21. I am not sure milk is implicated yet but I will be suspicious of milk from

infected cows.Just a precaution.

[sunnystarr]

15. Maybe it's time for small farmers and ranchers

that don't use chemicals in their feed or the ground to ban together to offer people a healthy alternative.

I've heard of grange chicken ... and I'm sure there's something similar with beef. I've heard of produce grown chemically free. I've heard of food co-ops.

How does this get organized and offered to people where they at least know how to look for it?

[TX-RAT]

20. Have been for many years now.

My cows are sold locally, either through individual sales or local meat markets. They by it, i haul it to the processors. We by veggies at the local farmers market when in season. I haven't bought beef or pork from grocery stores in years. Only problem for some is freezer space, side of beef takes up a lot of space. If you want smaller amounts, those are sold at the processors.

[htuttle]

8. You're a fool if you're still eating beef and pork

Or rather, you WILL be a fool if you continue to eat it.

[ohio_liberal]

9. Pork too?

:(

[htuttle]

10. During the first prion disease outbreak in Britain...

It affected almost all animals you'd consider 'red meat'. Basically, all mammals. Lots of pets (cats and dogs) got it, and so did a whole slew of different animals in the zoos.

As far as I know, there were no reports of prion diseases affecting poultry of any kind. However, that could have as much to do with their shorter lifespan as it does with their differing brain structure.

I've been sticking to birds and fishes for my meat for about 4 years. So far, so good.

[ohio_liberal]

11. Apparently we'll be switching to a poultry and fish diet as well

I'm going to really miss steaks. :(

[livetohike]

12. vCJD is the disease one gets from eating infected meat

and it can lie dormant in your system for 20 years. It's not just in beef either.

My husband's aunt had CJD. It can only be diagnosed via a brain biopsy and the surgical tools used must be thrown away. The prions live despite sterilization. She died in 1994. This "problem" has been around for a long time, imo.

[realFedUp]

14. bird flu and mercury.....

maybe soy products are the answer.

[livetohike]

19. The scary part of this is that it may be too late for some folks

since the disease may not manifest itself for 20 years. I've been "mostly" vegetarian for the past 35 years, but I still don't feel immune to this disease.

The doctors gave the family a copy of info on CJD from the latest medical journal back in 1994. It's frightening to read. We still have our copy. My husband can no longer donate blood because he had CJD in his family (maternal Aunt). Scary stuff.

Edit: poor grammar

[flvegan]

16. Vegetarianism/veganism is always an option.

I'm just sayin'...

[Coventina]

18. I first read about Mad Cow in "In These Times", early 90s

Gave up beef that day.

Gave up pork a few years after that.

Don't miss it AT ALL. I feel much healthier, and know I'm sparing misery and harm to the environment.

Of course, it may be too late for me already, since "mad cow" can be dormant in the human body for decades. But I'm going to enjoy whatever amount of time I have left.

The meat industry can kiss my ass.