Thursday 28th of November 2024
Home » Blogs » John Richardson's blog

mad food disease .....

mad food disease .....

‘The Bush administration has said that it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.

The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. A beef producer in the western state of Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wants to test all of its cows.

Three cases of mad cow disease have been found in the United States. The first, in December 2003 in Washington state, was in a cow that had been imported from Canada. The second, in 2005, was in a cow born in Texas. The third was confirmed last year in an Alabama cow.’

US Government Fights To Keep Meatpackers From Testing All Slaughtered Cattle For Mad Cow

Meanwhile …..

“For the first time, the industrial chemical that contaminated pet food ingredients imported from China has been found in livestock and fish feed ingredients produced in the USA. Two companies in Ohio and Colorado recalled the ingredients found to contain melamine, a chemical used in the manufacture of plastics that was linked to the massive pet food recall in March. The contaminated pet food is believed to have killed dogs and cats across the USA.

According to the USA Today, the tainted products have embroiled China in a global controversy over the safety of its food exports. The Food and Drug Administration's announcement Wednesday of the feed recall marks the first discovery of melamine in U.S.-made ingredients.”

US Firms Recall Contaminated Feed Ingredients

And if you're interested in what's happening to our food, check-out this in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled US grocery store shelves for the past decade & ask yourselves whether it might be happening here?

Future Of Food

In wondering about the inexplicable actions of crazies, it was once asked if "maybe it was something in the water". Maybe, in the case of the pox imperialis amerikanus, it's something in their food?

cows of mass destruction .....

You wouldn't know it from reading the newspapers, but the streets of Seoul are packed with tens of thousands of angry protestors who've brought business and government to a standstill. The demonstrations have dragged on for more than a month and show no sign of ending anytime soon.

President Lee Myung-Bak's decision to lift the ban on US beef imports has set off a political firestorm that is likely to bring down the government and put the kibosh on free trade agreements for years to come.  

On Tuesday, the powerful Korean Confederation of Trade Unions threatened to call a general strike if the meat-deal with Washington was not rescinded. If the unions strike, the whole capital will shut down. That's why the politicians are scrambling for solutions. 

Meat Wars

subservient gesture

South Korean government unravels in the face of mass political protests
By James Cogan
12 June 2008

The conservative Grand National Party (GNP) administration of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is in disarray little more than three months after taking office. It faces popular repudiation of virtually its entire policy agenda, amid the largest anti-government demonstrations since the final days of the military dictatorship in 1987.

Well over a million Koreans took to the streets in Seoul and 80 other cities and towns on Tuesday evening. The main slogan of as many as 700,000 demonstrators in Seoul was “Out with President Lee”, making clear their rejection of his attempt to appease the opposition by having his entire cabinet offer to resign earlier in the day.

The initial trigger for the unrest was the government’s unexpected lifting in April of the ban imposed in 2003 on US beef imports due to mad cow infections. The announcement on beef imports was made as a concession to the Bush administration during Lee’s first state visit to Washington, where he was seeking to make progress on protracted 18-month negotiations toward a US-Korean free trade agreement that would enhance opportunities for Korean exporters. US negotiators have repeatedly linked a repeal of the beef ban to any trade deal. South Korea was previously the third-largest market for American beef.

To many Koreans, Lee’s decision was a subservient gesture to US corporate interests, made in anti-democratic contempt for public opinion and at the potential expense of their health and safety. Fear of mad cow infections from US beef was subsequently heightened by Korean nationalist groups, who generated a degree of hysteria over the issue with crude anti-Americanism. Accusations were made that the American beef industry intended to dump potentially infected beef in South Korea that it would not sell at home...

from cloud cuckoo land .....

Of the 35 million cattle slaughtered each year, the US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) tests about 1% for BSE, or Mad Cow Disease. But Creekstone Farms wants to test 100% of the cattle they process, at their own expense. 

The USDA won't let them, and the USDA's rule has been backed by the federal courts. You see, if Creekstone tests all its beef and boasts of it in its marketing, their larger competitors could feel obliged to do the same, and this additional expense may lower their profit margins or raise the price of beef.  

Just three cases of Mad Cow disease have ever been discovered in the U.S.  You are far more likely to choke to death on a piece of steak than eat any Mad Cow meat.

If Creekstone wants to sell higher-priced meat to pay for a seemingly unnecessary test, that does not mean their competitors will have to follow suit.  Their untested meat would have the advantage of a lower price.

The public should choose for themselves whether they want 100% protection from the rare Mad Cow Disease, or a lower price.  Also, export markets like Japan and South Korea are very concerned about Mad Cow Disease. Creekstone wants to do these tests mainly to cater to them.

By preventing Creekstone from testing for BSE in all its cattle, the USDA is: 

·                     preventing a safer product from entering the market, undermining the alleged rationale for government regulation and control of industry.

·                     denying Americans the opportunity to decide for themselves, in the "land of the free."

·                     hurting America's trade balance. 

Imagine Congress passing a law that prevents a private business from voluntarily making its product safer than government standards, in order to protect Big Business. The uproar would be incredible. 

But Congress did NOT pass a law against Mad Cow testing.

The USDA made it up on its own own. To be more precise, Congress did pass a law back in 1913, called the Virus-Serum-Toxin Act. It was designed to prevent the sale of dangerous or ineffective animal medicines. But this Act and subsequent revisions gave the USDA power to make both broader policies and more specific regulations.

Even though testing for the incurable BSE doesn't seem to fall within the intent of this Act, the USDA has been given very broad discretion.

In short, Congress never said private businesses can't test for BSE.  

But the USDA did. 

When Congress delegates lawmaking to the Executive Branch, the result is Mad Bureaucrat Disease; insane regulations that sacrifice freedom and the public good for the interests of a few powerful corporate lobbyists.