Mad Cow Testing

This story at MSNBC http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4702216/ indicates that the USDA will not permit meat packers to test their own product for mad cow disease! (There is an instant poll at the site, and I was surprised that, at the time I voted, 17% of the 8000 or so respondents did not think that meat packers should be allowed to test their beef for mad cow. I speculate that these folks already have mad cow disease and want company.)

I found this story because this issue was featured on Morning Sedition this morning, and I had a hard time believing that the government would actually prevent a meat packer from performing tests at its own expense to insure the safety of its own product. It appears to be true, absurd as it is. Have the bureaucrats at USDA succumbed to mad cow themselves? The fact is that the USDA is more concerned about confidence in the beef supply and protecting its patrons in Big Beef than in the safety of the food supply. It turns out that the government testing program in place since 1990 has been found by the USDA IG to have no statistical validity whatsoever. The program has been nothing but window dressing to build false confidence in the safety of beef.

I'm not one to panic over this, and I recognize that deaths known to be related to mad cow are very few (if you can even believe death stats). That said, I don't think I want to take the chance that my next hamburger will destroy my brain. The technology and the incentives exist for meat packers to test for mad cow, and I would definitely pay a premium for beef that was credibly certified as mad-cow-free. And by credibly I mean certified by the packer, not the lying USDA. We have got to find a way to get the USDA out of the way.

For my part, I am going to lay off beef unless it comes from a local organic farmer who does not feed cows to cows. I encourage my conspecifics top do the same.