USDA Doesn’t Want Farm To Test All Cows For Mad Cow Disease
For all you home cookers of pet food: In an odd development, a farm is fighting the Bush administration for the rights to test all its cows against the mad cow disease. The USDA argues that a false positive will harm the US beef industry. Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows.
The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef…
Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone should test its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive tests on their larger herds as well.
May 30th, 2007 at 1:36 am
At this point, the USDA lost the battle, and the farm HAS the right to test the beef for BSE.
The USDA waited until the last minute to file an appeal of their adverse decision, so the effective date of June 1st for that company to test is stayed for the duration. I haven’t seen the decision, or of course the transcripts, so I haven’t any idea whether there is one ounce of viability in their appeal, other than just their right to do so.
It does however buy the sneaky govt. bast***s some time to pursue other venues besides the appeals court…like legislation solidifying their agenda, maybe an exec order from Bush, lots of possibilities.
This is part of the unified effort by the federal govt, no matter which admin is in office, to consolidate all farming/ranching activities to big agri-businesses. Killing the smaller/mid sized operations. Not for safety, or oversight reasons.
But because the USDA and other agencies find it easier to control large ag-biz in the pursuit of our import/export trade policies. I knew people were complaining re the small/mid operators in ag disappearing or being forced out of business, but until the pet food crisis, I just didn’t “get” the reasons behind these complaints. I am appalled at my govt’s actions, truly short sighted stupidity run rampant.
May 30th, 2007 at 1:44 am
This is really the work of some sick individuals and really insulting. I can’t believe they have the gall to do this right in our faces, despite all that is going on with food safety. Even 7 or 8 undetected cases of BSE a year (but how could they really get a good number considering how little they test) could be disastrous to the many individuals who could be affected in the mass processing of meat should the spinal tissue or brain get in there. And now they want to test a mere 10%of the less than 1% of the cattle they currently test a year. Sounds like they are taking some tips from the FDA import standards. Why not apply it at home as well? Here they are, trying to weaken already pathetic food safety standards. I hope Creekstone Farms wins their case. How can the government prevent a company from testing their own cattle? I think more than being afraid of a false positive, they are probably more afraid of real positives disrupting foreign imports–foreign standards are a bit more discerning than we are. A false positive could always be re-evaluated. What is really going on here? Reminds me of the r-BGH battles. I think our government is working really hard to undermine food safety. They are the henchmen of Big Business. Beautiful. They are also undermining the rights of the individual. There may be a RICO act violation surfacing. Conservative administration, in a pig’s eye! Supporting big business over the common person is not democratic or constitutional. It is an autocratic oligarchy. I am FED UP with their garbage!!! I wonder why Europeans and Japanese have more leverage with their governments food policies. Look what happened with Masterfoods chocolate debacle. And many other examples from the past.
May 30th, 2007 at 2:17 am
Your tax dollars at work! They can’t fund the FDA to have enough inspectors to inspect imported food, but they can continue to fund a lawsuit to protect the interests of the Big 4 Meatpacking plants that want to continue importing cheap beef to protect their bottom line. Not to mention what this will do to Creekstone farms. And Creekstone is having to pay their own lawyers—-WE are paying the USDA lawyers!!
May 30th, 2007 at 2:23 am
ok, when does this become a Rights issue?!!
How the F*** can they keep taking away our *good* food and then NOT give us a choice of what to buy?!
can we sue the usda/fed/and any other freakin’ agency that big biz has in their back pocket?!
and this is from a so not *sue* person! so much for freedom and demorcacy. I may have thought we were going down the toilet before, but now i know we’re in it. Gee, if the beef here can’t stand up to testing, why the heck is it legal to sell it?!
*insert exploding head yet again*
May 30th, 2007 at 2:29 am
“And Creekstone is having to pay their own lawyers—-WE are paying the USDA lawyers!!”
maybe we need a paypal fund for Creekstone legal.
Obama got a lot of donations from *small* folks for his presidential run and did well. I wonder what those same people plus everyone else who wants safe food could do . . .
this is not about politics, but about how much money those smaller donations can add up to. and the statement it can make.
May 30th, 2007 at 4:11 am
[…] USDA doesn’t want farms to test all cows for mad cow disease. […]
May 30th, 2007 at 7:36 am
What Happen To Let Everyone Police Themselves With This One. Hmmmm Guess The Only Ones Allowed To Do That Are The Ones Poisoning Us. Here We Have A Small Company That Wants To Do Right By The American Consumer And Check Their Product Throughly For Our Safety And The Idiots Running This Assylum We Call America Saying Oh No We Cant Let You Do That. Why? Because Then We Have A Choice And Wont Have To Buy The Poison They Ok For Import. I Know I Would Buy From A Company That Wants To Go Above And Beyond The Acceptable Standards. Leave Them Alone To Do The Testing And Let The People Decide.
May 30th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Did you see the MSNBC survey? (Check the link above.)
“Should widespread testing for mad cow disease be allowed? * 4519 responses
a. Absolutely. I want to know what’s in my burger before I eat it.
86%
b. Not if it makes my steak more expensive.
8.9%
c. I don’t know.
1.7%
d. I don’t eat beef.
3.3%
Not a scientific survey….Results may not total 100% due to rounding. ”
The customers want it tested, but not the cattle barons.
May 30th, 2007 at 8:58 am
“The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.”
WTF????? If meatpackers want to test their own cows, so be it. Who/what does the Bush Administration think they are? Are they footing the bill? Of course not. Are they trying to hide something? OF COURSE.
The White House orders their meats from other countries so of course they could care less what the American people eat.
Any new President is going to have a lovely mess to clean up when they enter office.
May 30th, 2007 at 9:17 am
who needs terrorists?
May 30th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Debi Says:
May 30th, 2007 at 9:17 am
who needs terrorists?
*******
I agree! I posted once before about this…not a racial comment either, just common sense….living near both the Elizabeth and NYC ports I had reason to be concerned when Bush wanted to put that Arab country in charge of our ports. Now, I’m not saying the country itself would be out to do us harm, but it would be far easier for the terrorists (of Arab culture, since Bush seems to like targeting those certain countries as potentially dangerous to the US) to get into the mainstream of the ports. Sure, hire an Arab country, but give us all a bunch of hype about how dangerous other Arab nations are to the point of actively invading and occupying them, and threaten to do so with others.
This not allowing farmers to test their cows if they want to is ridiculous. Since Mar. 16 I’ve learned so much about not only pet foods, but our own foods. At this point I think I might not mind becoming aneorexic…scarey stuff in our foods. And oh yes, I ate that nasty peanut butter too. Would have been nice for that plant not to have produced what they did. They knew the peanuts were messed up.
I think Bush needs to be tested for mad cow. How can he prevent us from any assurance, where we can get it these days, that our food is safe???
May 30th, 2007 at 9:34 am
unfreakin’ believable…when are Americans going to wake-up and
fight back!
none of the 2008 candidates are addressing the food-safety issue in this
country.
May 30th, 2007 at 9:43 am
Denni,
Americans might wake up and fight back if they were really made aware. Just this morning and last night on the news I kept hearing about the contact lens solution being recalled. The pet food never got so much attention. In fact the last “few” recalls I haven’t heard anything on the news. Yet they keep pushing how obese we all are, and the deal about trrans fat not being allwed in restaurants or fast food places any more. And how all menus should list ingredients or nutritional values and calories. But all the other stuff that shouldn’t be in our foods are okay. Go figure.
Now if the media could or would have said more about the pet food recalls and what’s realy in those cans and bags, or pushed the non-testing beef Bush is pushing, maybe, just maybe things will spark up. But if the majority of the public is in the dark, or doesn’t hear much, then it will all just be blown off. I guess people figure they’ve been eating whatever for years and they’re okay…not knowing that what’s in what they’re eating is changing and not for the better.
May 30th, 2007 at 9:59 am
Susan,
The term “cattle barons” usually applies to the cattle ranchers with larger herds, and most cattle ranchers would support the right of Creekstone to test their beef. It is the big meatpackers (4 meatpackers slaughter 80% of the cattle in the U.S.) that are trying to put the smaller companies like Creekstone out of business. They want it ALL, dontcha know. There are very few small independent slaughter plants left in the U.S.
The predatory pricing practices of the Big 4, is also working to put U.S. cattle ranchers out of business, and they don’t mind sourcing the beef they sell from some other country without the health and safety standards we have.
There are some bills before congress now to be included in the 2007 Farm Bill that would prevent Packer ownership of cattle, prohibit certain anti-competitive forward contracts and H.R. 2135,to enhance fair and open competition.
Needless to say, the Big 4 are fighting this tooth and nail. They have USDA in their court, using USDA lawyers, (our tax dollars) to fight the battle for them in the Creekstone suit, and putting pressure on congress to prevent Country of Origin Labeling from being implemented. USDA is working for them on the COOL issue as well.
May 30th, 2007 at 10:02 am
BTW Debbie,
Were you aware the contact lens solution that was recalled also came from China? I found that on the FDA website in the letter to the company, I think.
May 30th, 2007 at 10:08 am
Elaine Says:
May 30th, 2007 at 10:02 am
BTW Debbie,
Were you aware the contact lens solution that was recalled also came from China? I found that on the FDA website in the letter to the company, I think.
*****
Not surprised. I did hear that the company manufacturing the crap said the consumers aren’t using it correctly. Sure, if you don’t use it correctly you get a bad, rare infection. I guess there are sooooo many dumb idiots that don’t know how to use it they had to recall it. Should have known it was from China by that comment about consumers not using it correctly. I guess that’s what we get from wanting “bargains”. They also blame all the food thing on us for wanting bargains. Nope, they are faultless!
May 30th, 2007 at 10:25 am
So the USDA has joined the corrupt club. So, when someone gets CJD, is the USDA held responsible as they should be?
Somehow, all this stuff ends up with the corrupt administration doesn’t it?
May 30th, 2007 at 10:42 am
rethinking the USDA’s *logic* here. In light of recent news about how little food testing is done on imports and the various problems with our own food, it seems even if they did find a positive, it wouldn’t hurt the industry. People would KNOW the meat they were buying had already passed testing vs taking a gamble on untested, right?
May 30th, 2007 at 10:53 am
If I were a meat eater (and I’m not any more, but if I were), I would spend the extra dollars to buy meat that was tested. I already buy organic and green everything, I even still buy artichokes and avocados as high as they are, if I want something I want it and I buy it.
But there are plenty of people who don’t, I know for a fact that there are still plenty of people who would buy the untested beef just because it was cheaper! And as far as exporting it, well don’t! Let people raise their own beef!
WE NEED A NEW FDA! WHAT HAPPENED TO FREEDOM OF CHOICE?????
May 30th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Mooo…. Forget global warming! We are being slowly killed off by our food.What a world we live in. Big business and the white house run the show. Bush is the ring master at his own circus. The gmo food croops are so scarey! I get the feeling sometimes that we are living in a science movie.
May 30th, 2007 at 11:03 am
I don’t eat beef either. I still care for a number of reasons.
1. I buy chopmeat sometimes for my cats as a treat.
2. Beef cat food.
3. I know and care about lots of people that do eat beef.
4. I don’t like the government telling anyone they do not have the right to not only say, but PROVE their product is safe….and using my tax dollar to enforce it. That’s just plain wrong.
May 30th, 2007 at 11:10 am
I thought this was a free country, but guess it is not any more. I am sure that president Bush has his own herd tested and does not have to worry about mad cow. Then general population does not even have a clue what they are eating. I too noticed that there was little about the dog food issue on TV. I wondered why! Everyone does not have a computer to check up on the brands but the newspaper and TV in my area showed nothing but the very first thing about Menu Foods. They hushed it all up. Just like the pigs and chickens and fish. They are very quiet about it all. They do not care about us, just big business. I did not realize that such a small percent of cattle were being tested. That is terrible! So… how many of us should come down with this mad cow before they decide to test more of them? How many of us have to get sick with melamine in our food till they do something about that? Our tax dollars pay for our government but our government is not for the people but for big enterprise.
When do they realize when we all start dieing off that they will not get the tax dollars any more when there are none of us left. Same with the pet manufacturers! When will they realize that if their food kills all of our pets, then who is going to eat their food?
Everything in our government is so hush hush!! don’t tell us anything! WE may find out the truth!! But what then people? What can we do? If we all do not stand together and do something soon then what are our children going to have in this world? It is getting to the point that people will not want to have children or pets anything because they will only get sick and die from the food our government wants us to consume.
They say Americans are obese! Putting hormones in cows, and giving the blood to their babies and then on to chickens, etc. Our children and all of us consume those very hormones too.. Maybe that is the reason for the weight gain!
None of our animals or pets or us should have anything out of the ordinary in our foods. But big business wanted the cows to grow faster.
Any company should have a right to test their cattle!! This is only a good thing and the right thing to do. By not letting them test them tells me there is something terribly wrong with our beef too and they know it! They do not want to be found out!
I give up! I can’t eat any more! Only in America and I am beginning to hate the country I live in!
May 30th, 2007 at 11:25 am
In a few years when America is overrun by those seeking to overtake and corrupt it, we will remember who did it. That great pres. Bush, the man who destroyed the country will be his legacy.
May 30th, 2007 at 11:35 am
comment by Elaine: The term “cattle barons†usually applies to the cattle ranchers with larger herds, and most cattle ranchers would support the right of Creekstone to test their beef. It is the big meatpackers (4 meatpackers slaughter 80% of the cattle in the U.S.) that are trying to put the smaller companies like Creekstone out of business. They want it ALL, dontcha know. There are very few small independent slaughter plants left in the U.S.*
***************************************************
I want to emphasis and second what Elaine said - read it and know that it is true. It is very disturbing to watch what our govt. is doing to the independent farmers and ranchers. Once I got past my initial doubts (”oh, I am sure the govt. isn’t picking on the little guy, what would be the point?), I read up on it. I talked to local ranchers who surround me. I went to meetings held by the various agencies, esp. the USDA. I have subscribed to a regional ag industry newspaper for the last 15 years or so, and I started reading it cover to cover, instead of focusing on the classifieds so much.
I don’t agree with our current government policy regarding elimination of all producers EXCEPT big agri business. I don’t agree with the out of control, non inspected trade with developing countries who send us products that do end runs around our laws and regulations.
I am really worried because just a change of administration, from repub to democrat, won’t automatically solve this. The democrats are jumping feet first into this “lets trade globally, and keep assuming that just because we are trading with humans, that they are just like us” crap. I don’t know why we americans always wish to assume that every culture is somehow the same or more perfect in some special way than we are.
I will continue to vote as I always do, being registered as Independent and never having bought into straight partisan issue voting. But I haven’t seen a potential candidate on either side, for various offices, that understands that our food safety trumps trade policy. Period. No matter who we offend, or disappoint or who may call us racist thinking it will influence and guilt us into continuing a trade partnership with those who frankly aren’t interested in food safety in the same way.
Only thing I know for sure is that but for the pet food recall/taint mess, I would have kept eating utter crap. My health is recovering and my dogs lived through their pet food scare, because this made me become “aware.” Now solving it so that food is safe is another matter.
May 30th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Gary..It already is his legacy. I cant believe he was voted in twice! That is another subject… Just a note to any one about doggy diets. I have been making home made spots stew, than I give my pug a calcium tab, some acidophilus and a half a tab of inflamaway. He is doing great. No more natural choice for me. My kitty on the other hand has tryed every brand out there. She seems to like some of the evangers but doesnt like the rest. She always ate hills science diet. When she stopped eating that I gave her fancy feast…I know..but that is all she would eat. I dont know why but it seems once a kitty is fed ff it is like a battle to get them to eat any thing else. Hummm??? About the mad cow… We thinks the ring master has already ate some of it.
May 30th, 2007 at 11:59 am
The meat industry already has tricks in place to fool the unsuspecting public. For one thing, even the 1% testing is misleading, because they eliminate from testing the very animals who are most likely to test positive, the “downers” who are already sick, injured, wobbly etc. IF they tested ALL of those, even though they aren’t going into the food supply, they would expose if there was already BSE in the herds. The younger healthy looking animals are far less likely to test positive by the law of averages. If they do get a positive test, do you think they tell the world, no, they just put that animal into the non-human food chain and hush it up. Don’t you think it’s strange the US has supposedly not had even ONE case of BSE? No likely. It’s just like China’s supposedly incredibly low rate of people getting bird flu. With a billion and a half people they supposedly have had only fifteen cases? I think not. Cover ups are obvious when the stats don’t make sense.
May 30th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Furmom, we DID have ONE case of BSE. That is why China doesn’t want to buy our beef. That is why we are agreeing to take their bird flu chickens in exchange for them taking our BSE beef. The thing is, if there was ONE case of BSE, the rest of the herd was eating the same cow parts as the ONE they tested. They are hanging on that one case the same way the FDA hung on 1% of the pet food was affected. They pound the lie enough times in enough media outlets that are OWNED by giant corporations, and people accept it as fact. After all they saw it on CNN and read it in The New York Post. Lies reported as facts are accepted as facts unless there is another source of news…like Itchmo. Thanks Itchmo. You are turning into the NPR of blogs. Thanks for not backing down when Iams rattled their armor.
May 30th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Furmom,
I am pretty sure the downer cows are all tested. We have had 2 cases of BSE in our native herds, and both cases were not the same strain as the one that comes from feeding feed with high risk material.
The original cow with BSE that was found in Washington state was a Canadian cow, and that wouldn’t have affected our trade with Japan and other countries, if USDA would have assured our trading partners that we were not sending them cattle from Canada!
But the USDA is working for the Big 4 meatpackers, so they wouldn’t do that. The reason being, the Big 4 also have slaughter plants in Canada, and they also own and feed cattle in Canada, to ship down here to supply our market.
Canada has a BAD BSE problem, as they have had, I think, 11 native cattle with BSE, and 5 or 6 of those were a young enough age that they were born AFTER the feed ban was in place, so it is obvious that Canada hasn’t got the feed situation under control.
Canada tested a lot less percentage of their cattle for BSE than did the U.S. in the beginning, but both countries have scaled back the testing.
IMO, Canada knows they have a problem, and don’t want to find any more BSE cases. IMO the USDA scaled back our testing because they are insisting we continue to import cattle from Canada unrestricted, and they are afraid WE will find more BSE cases, and they will be of Canadian origin.
The USDA says they scaled back our testing because they hadn’t found any BSE in native cattle, except for the 2 non-typical cases, so they knew that U.S. herds are safe.
May 30th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
I agree with furmom that we have had more than one case of BSE here in the USA. Because I have watched closely now both the FDA and USDA in action. I watched how they answered/nonanswered questions, how they phrased things so that inspection would fall outside of their responsibility, honestly it was every trick in the standard playbook and more.
Using the dodge & weave and standards as they applied them in the pet food scandal, it is all too easy for me to believe that they did the same with cows that were likely BSE, shunting them straight into our food supply. After all, CJ disease can show up years later - how will you prove that a U.S. BSE cow caused it?
In fact, that seems to be the FDA stance as well. Many health issues can arise from the food we know is suspect but we refuse to inspect. However, for all for the most lethal, there can be a great time lag between continued ingestion, and the end bad health result. And it just isn’t likely to be enough proof to firmly establish that the food caused the health issue. That is the status quo as we type.
The fact that the FDA has asked the CDC to monitor human kidney disease rates simply says to me that the pet food/chinese taint scandal is expected to leave a trail to kidney disease that can be followed, so hey, let’s get out in front of that one.
May 30th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
What I recall reading about Creekstone is that they sell or wish to sell beef at a high premium to the Japanese market. And the Japanese won’t buy unless there is some real testing going on to ensure the absence of BSE from beef. Thus the need to test, and of course, this gets in the way of the USDA’s foreign import policy of being the ones (via the administration’s dictates) who decide where to promote our products, and how to set standards (low in their case, to be sold to some foreign countries that are not as particular as the Japanese are).
This has to be stopped, ie we have to have verifiable assurances of safe imported food, we need to know where food originated and where it was processed, AND we have to have left in place some meaningful OTHER resources from which to purchase meat and produce in the USA.
I don’t WANT a monopoly situation with food, like we have with utilities. But that is the direction things are headed, and I am worried.
May 30th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
A further note:
The Canadian BSE problem has been bad for the Canadian ranchers, as it affected their cattle prices immensely and the Big 4 took advantage of that BiGTIME, to buy the cattle up there, ship them here and get the same price for the meat, therefore making a bigger profit.
The big packers don’t want COOL because they know if our meat was labeled as to country of origin, the consumer would make the choice and pay more for U.S. beef.
Also, having the beef come in from Canada has affected the cattle prices for U.S. ranchers. We have lost export markets because of it. If our beef was labeled as to COOL, the U.S. rancher would have the tools to compete fairly for the consumer dollar.
It is true some folks wouldn’t care, and they don’t care about the food from China. But those of us who do educate ourselves and care, have the RIGHT to know what country our food comes from!
May 30th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Here is a very interesting link regarding possible cases of mad cow as early as 1997 that may have gone undocumented in the US.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story.....50412.html
May 30th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
We have had 4 cases in the USA.. Washington cow was a fluke and sheer luck to find, not even a downer, unruly, so the guy at Vern’s meat packing put her down just because she was difficult. Even the hauler said she walked right out of the trailer… They had to take a sample since it happened in the yard outside prior to slaughter, per Vern’s policy at his extremely small packing house.. After confirmation for the first positive in USA -later USDA took away Vern’s contract for sampling..
Then they started using the “rapid test” in the field or smaller packers as the biggies didn’t want to have ANYTHING to do with it. Many came back positive, so were sent to the major lab in Ames, Iowa for finals. Where they used HIC testing instead of the Western Blot that is extremely accurate… and reversed the findings so to speak with an inferior test. Will we ever know the truth?
Remember the San Angelo Texas cow that they wanted tested? Didn’t happen, they were told no test by APHIS and USDA and blamed each other for lack of communication and agreed “after the fact” she should have been tested.. even thou the packer in this little town was overly suspicious and contacted them over and over for testing.. She went on to rendering..
Then we had 2 positives confirmed in Texas, one caught at the Purina plant and another (sample) that was formally negative, but sat on the shelf for 7 months (so to speak) and a conscious whistleblower in USDA (forgot her name) sent it out for western blot testing.. Guess what, she was no longer negative but positive.
Then we had the Alabama cow test positive.. That was the day of the Senate vote for mandatory animal ID.. to trace back for animal diseases. Guess that was well timed…it served it’s purpose and the Senate voted for the national animal ID bill.. it helped to push it through when you have a positive suddenly show up..
Rather than test all at slaughter, USDA chose a minimal amount for what they called “surveillance” and then feed restrictions and risk removals from slaughter houses - removing cows and other ruminants (ie, sheep, goats) from cattlefeed… All of the above is IMO as I watched and researched for the past 5 years with great interest..
It was early 2004 that Anne Venemon of the Dept of Ag took measures to stop the use of downed animals in the human food supply… The feed ban for cattle and other ruminants ( goats, sheep) began in 1997 as the issue of BSE (mad cow) was finally being addressed.. feed enforcement is another question.
http://www.hsus.org/farm/resou.....sease.html
Currently, downed animals, as well as other condemned meat, can be used in pet foods. These meats, known as the 4-Ddead, dying, diseased or downmeats, are sent to rendering facilities, along with other offal (animal products considered unfit for human consumption) from factory farms. They are then boiled, melted, or otherwise processed to become tallow, meal, or other ingredients to be used in edible and inedible products, including pet foods.
The USDA has taken the following steps:
Immediately banned downer cattle from being used in human food. Unlike pending legislation, the administrative ban does not cover species other than cows. Nor does it prohibit the use of downed cows in edible products intended for animals other than humans, such as pet food and feed for chickens, pigs, and other animals.
Announced intentions to stop the practice of labeling animals as “inspected and passed” and allowing their meat to be sold while BSE test results are still pending.
Banned certain high-risk tissue from cattle older than 30 months of age, such as the skull, brain, and eyes as well as the small intestines from cattle of any age for use in human food. These slaughterhouse by-products will still be allowed in the feed of animals other than cattle.
Prohibited certain high-risk tissue from being included in meat processed using the Advanced Meat Recovery (AMR) system. AMR is a method of extracting meat close to the bone.
Banned air-injected stunning guns, which can contaminate meat with high-risk tissue. Most federally inspected plants in the United States stopped using air-injected stunning devices prior to this ruling. That technology has been replaced by captive bolt stun guns and non-penetrating captive bolt guns, which are designed to knock animals unconscious and are still allowed under USDA rules.
Prohibited Mechanically Separated meat from entering the human food supply.
To learn more about this announcement, read the USDA’s statement on the downer ban and the other BSE control measures announced on December 30, 2003.
And just for the record here is a recall for 2007 March… concerning BSE in cattle feed. Of course the public isn’t privy to it.. No news ya see.. So you tell me… Is the feed ban working? Heck it wasn’t even enforced for many years at first and we continue with these monthly violations…again all IMO… don’t want to be like Oprah and go to court for bad mouthing..
10,000,000+ LBS. of PROHIBITED BANNED MAD COW FEED I.E. MBM IN COMMERCE USA 2007
Date: March 21, 2007 at 2:27 pm PST
RECALLS AND FIELD CORRECTIONS: VETERINARY MEDICINES — CLASS II
___________________________________
PRODUCT
Bulk cattle feed made with recalled Darlings 85% Blood Meal, Flash Dried, Recall # V-024-2007
CODE
Cattle feed delivered between 01/12/2007 and 01/26/2007
RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER
Pfeiffer, Arno, Inc, Greenbush, WI. by conversation on February 5, 2007. Firm initiated recall is ongoing.
REASON
Blood meal used to make cattle feed was recalled because it was cross-contaminated with prohibited bovine meat and bone meal that had been manufactured on common equipment and labeling did not bear cautionary BSE statement.
VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE
42,090 lbs.
DISTRIBUTION
WI
___________________________________
PRODUCT
Custom dairy premix products: MNM ALL PURPOSE Pellet, HILLSIDE/CDL Prot-Buffer Meal, LEE, M.-CLOSE UP PX Pellet, HIGH DESERT/ GHC LACT Meal, TATARKA, M CUST PROT Meal, SUNRIDGE/CDL PROTEIN Blend, LOURENZO, K PVM DAIRY Meal, DOUBLE B DAIRY/GHC LAC Mineral, WEST PIONT/GHC CLOSEUP Mineral, WEST POINT/GHC LACT Meal, JENKS, J/COMPASS PROTEIN Meal, COPPINI 8# SPECIAL DAIRY Mix, GULICK, L-LACT Meal (Bulk), TRIPLE J PROTEIN/LACTATION, ROCK CREEK/GHC MILK Mineral, BETTENCOURT/GHC S.SIDE MK-MN, BETTENCOURT #1/GHC MILK MINR, V&C DAIRY/GHC LACT Meal, VEENSTRA, F/GHC LACT Meal, SMUTNY, A-BYPASS ML W/SMARTA, Recall # V-025-2007
CODE
The firm does not utilize a code - only shipping documentation with commodity and weights identified.
RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER
Rangen, Inc, Buhl, ID, by letters on February 13 and 14, 2007. Firm initiated recall is complete.
REASON
Products manufactured from bulk feed containing blood meal that was cross contaminated with prohibited meat and bone meal and the labeling did not bear cautionary BSE statement.
VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE
9,997,976 lbs.
DISTRIBUTION
ID and NV
END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR MARCH 21, 2007
May 30th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
These are quote from an article today that I found showing that S. Korea’s resistance to importing U.S. beef to their country is because we do not differentiate our beef from Canadian beef:
January 2006, South Korea agreed to allow U.S. boneless beef from animals under 30 months old to be imported. In late 2003, it had imposed an outright ban after a mad cow case was reported in the country.
(This was the Canadian cow found in Washington state.)
The United States has been pressuring Seoul to change the rule so that “bone-in beef” such as ribs can enter the country.
In addition, he called on the government to move quickly to set up a complete animal and meat tracking system that will allow consumers to differentiate between locally raised beef and imports.
“Cattle move freely over North America so there is no way of knowing if the beef being imported to South Korea is from Canada, the United States or Mexico,” he said. The number of mad cow cases in Canada are much higher than those in the United States. Seoul currently bans Canadian beef imports
May 30th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Sez who,
I stand corrected on the BSE positive numbers, and, yes, I remember the cow in Texas that Aphis wouldn’t inspect, in spite of the slaughter facility requesting it.
Thank you for clarifying that downer cows do not enter the human food chain. That should have been done years ago, IMO.
However, the feed in question was only possibly contaminated with BSE tissue, not that that excuses the use of blood meal etc. in cattle feed. That also should have been prohibited years ago.
May 30th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
At least Canada is testing and finding them…
If you don’t look, you don’t find.
Demand that the USA test all, and let’s erradicate for the health of our nation.. Japan does, they test all… It’s no wonder other countries do not want our beef!!!
May 30th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Elaine,
You are kidding yourself if you think the US has no real BSE problem simply because “not many cows have tested positive”. Wake up and smell the roses! You have to actually test to find the positive cases. Has the pet food poisoning not taught you anything? It all boils down to ECONOMICS. The all mighty dollar trumps all else. It always has.
May 30th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
I wonder if them have ever seen anyone die of Mad Cow. I have. It’s not a pretty picture. I’d like to at least have a choice in the matter of eating tested or not-tested beef. Economics may make an ugly end of many or all of us. ~~ Robyn
May 30th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
HotMBC -
You have my sincere condolences, CJD, whether it’s classified as sCJD (sporadic,meaning NO known cause), vCJD, (mad cow) or nvCJD (mad cow new vairient) is a most horrific disease and death.
The classifications are all the same to me in distress, symptoms, and no cure or treatment. I am truly sorry for you. No ONE should ever have to go through this, it’s truly the terrible disease that it is.. My heart goes out to you.. Most people have no idea…
I’m very skeptical of the sCJD, “no known cause” can very well be a catch all for underreporting the mad cow varients.. IMO
May 30th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
sez who Says:
May 30th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
At least Canada is testing and finding them…
If you don’t look, you don’t find.
Demand that the USA test all, and let’s erradicate for the health of our nation.. Japan does, they test all… It’s no wonder other countries do not want our beef!!!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
sez who, I agree with the last part of your statement, all countries with known cases of BSE in their herds should be required to test all, and most do. We certainly shouldn’t be prohibited from testing by a govt agency that we all know is corrupt.
Re: your first statement that Canada is at least testing for BSE. I looked back thru my info on my computer about testing numbers. The first mad cow was discovered in 2003. In July 2006 U.S. had tested 400,000 head and found 1 cow that tested positive. In July 2006 Canada had only tested 115,000 and found 8 that tested positive.
Since that time both Canada and our USDA announced they were scaling back on the BSE testing, which is VERY irresponsible, IMO.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
FiverCat Says:
May 30th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Elaine,
You are kidding yourself if you think the US has no real BSE problem simply because “not many cows have tested positiveâ€. Wake up and smell the roses! You have to actually test to find the positive cases. Has the pet food poisoning not taught you anything? It all boils down to ECONOMICS. The all mighty dollar trumps all else. It always has.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
My post from above “The USDA says they scaled back our testing because they hadn’t found any BSE in native cattle, except for the 2 non-typical cases, so they knew that U.S. herds are safe.” Note that I said the USDA said that, not me.
I agree with most of what you said. However, my position is that we should not be importing meat and live cattle no matter what age they are from Canada, unless it has all been tested for BSE.
The USDA and FSIS is charged with safeguarding the agriculture community of this nation AND the safety of our food supply–and they are doing neither!
May 30th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
The government is refusing to allow the testing because the actual test the cattle company wants to use hasn’t been licensed for anything other than screening.
The test itself isn’t 100% accurate.
This then would cause a false sense of security for the negative tests.
However, the mainstream media wants to look at it from effects of the false positives. Not from a position of common sense.
We shouldn’t take every article we read at face value. Did anyone ask the cattle company “why” they want to do their own testing?
They want to do their own testing because a large portion of their clientele are in Japan. The cattle company isn’t necessarily looking out for our interests per se`. They are looking out for their own economic interests which consists of gaining business that has been lost back. Japan has banned shipment of US beef into their country.
If I were the cattle company, I would want to be very careful in trusting these tests and making a blanket statement that their beef is 100% free of BSE. If for some reason one of the tests fails, it could put them out of business for good.
May 30th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
To Elaine - and I appreciate your friendly debate…
I think we need to put some numbers up though… USA slaughters over 35 million per year, as opposed to Canada’s 7 million.. So mathmatically I feel they are testing more percentage wise and I feel that is way better than us.. We’ve been trading cattle for umpteen years anyway. To me this is a North American problem, like it or not and that border with Canada just isn’t there for cattle (we’ve got theirs and they’ve got ours)… God only knows what has come up from the south of us, Mexico, and I haven’t heard a peep out of them for testing.
This is a dated article 2003, but it does give a perception of the cattle in the USA as opposed to the cattle in Canada…
Market Advisor: Comparing U.S. and Canadian Cattle Numbers http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extne.....livstk.htm
snip:
Canada’s cattle herd is only 15 percent of the size of the US herd and about equal to the number of cattle in Texas. On July 1 Texas had 15.5 million head compared to the 15.7 million head in Canada. About the same number of cattle could also be found in five combined Northern Plains states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana and Wyoming.
*************************************************************
Noted scientist Stanley Prusiner stated before the CA senate that no one in our country has asked his opinion on BSE in USA cause they don’t want to know. He is the ark of BSE research and won the Nobel Pulitizter for detecting prions in his research.. He should very much so be listened to.
May 30th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
It’s Me,TJ says:
The government is refusing to allow the testing because the actual test the cattle company wants to use hasn’t been licensed for anything other than screening.
The test itself isn’t 100% accurate.
This then would cause a false sense of security for the negative tests.
However, the mainstream media wants to look at it from effects of the false positives. Not from a position of common sense.
We shouldn’t take every article we read at face value. Did anyone ask the cattle company “why†they want to do their own testing?
They want to do their own testing because a large portion of their clientele are in Japan. The cattle company isn’t necessarily looking out for our interests per se`. They are looking out for their own economic interests which consists of gaining business that has been lost back. Japan has banned shipment of US beef into their country.
If I were the cattle company, I would want to be very careful in trusting these tests and making a blanket statement that their beef is 100% free of BSE. If for some reason one of the tests fails, it could put them out of business for good.
——————————————————————
Do you have more details about the test they are doing, what is it called? I don’t really have any qualms with their looking out for their own economic interests. I would pay more to feed this to my kids. I am a vegetarian and don’t allow the kids beef, gelatin, etc, due to BSE risk. I was in UK when it was surfacing and that put me off. I feel any test that improves safety, whether self-serving or not, is good for the public. I think companies should be rewarded financially when they are responsible to their consumers. It’s the reward for good business practices. Unlike some other agro-biz that poison us and contaminate the crops for everyone. Maybe we should be a little more discriminating like the EU and Japan. We will eat almost anything and Everyone knows it. We are the joke of the frankenfood world.
May 30th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
The Agriculture Department argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the U.S. meat industry. U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that Creekstone sought to use the same test the government relies on and said the government lacked the authority to restrict it.
a farm is fighting the Bush administration for the rights to test all its cows against the mad cow disease.
May 30th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
sez who,
I googled this and found the numbers as of January 2007. I thought the Canadian cattle herd was larger. However, as of July 2006 Canada had tested and found 8 BSE cattle in 115,000 tested, which is 1 BSE positive per 15,000 head of cattle. At that time U.S. had tested 400,000 and found 1 case which is 1 per 400,000. Statistically quite a difference.
www.usda.gov/nass/PUBS/TODAYRPT/uscc0207.pdf
Your mention of Dr Prusiner jogged my memory. He wrote a brief on support of R-CALF USA’s lawsuit against USDA . Following is an excerpt of a press release:
“In support of its brief, R-CALF USA also submitted declarations prepared by four renowned scientists, including a declaration prepared by Stanley B. Prusiner, M.D. – winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize for medicine – and the world’s preeminent expert in the field of neurodegenerative diseases caused by prions, the infectious protein that causes BSE. Prusiner’s 10-page declaration provides clear scientific evidence in support of R-CALF USA’s position in its litigation against USDA.”
I don’t agree that we are a “North American” cattle herd. If that is so–then we must also include the Mexican cattle herds, and as you said, we haven’t heard a peep out of them about their testing program for BSE.
I think Canada and the U.S. do have more in common as to our values in business etc. Mexico has a whole different set of values, bribery is a common and expected practice.
We are separate countries, each country has agencies charged with protecting their own citizens and the health of their agriculture herds and crops. Unfortunately, our USDA/FSIS/FDA are failing miserably at serving those they are charged with protecting.
In fact, maybe our govt agencies DO have something in common with the Mexican set of values.
May 30th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Per the above incomplete blog, the pesky phone rang, It looks like the Ag Dept is saying false positives would harm us meat industry, not false negatives. The truth can be so annoying to the food industry!!! It also looks like Creekstone wants to use the same test the government uses. Is that the screening test, Me TJ. In that case, it looks like we have no idea how much BSE is out there. But that is what I suspected anyway when my family stopped eating beef and byproducts. Our testing rates are negligible, and I’ve read sickly looking cows are not part of the random sample anyway. Compliance to any gov’t guidelines, where they actually exist, is always questionable. If there is one or seven infected cows out there, you know there must be more due to common feed being the vector. I have also known someone who died of CJ. That is definitely not the way I want to go or see anyone I love go.
May 30th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
I seem to recall that U.S. was allowing blood (?) to be used in cattle feed until July last year, when the ban on using blood in feed was to take effect.
I’m too tired to google that tonight, today has been quite overwhelming with the FDA press conference revelations.
May 30th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
MOre and more lately, i think we have a lot in common with the Mexican governments set of values. I was thinking the same thing myself today. We were all duped into a false sense of security while Agro-Business got their dirty little hands into every aspect of our lives. And it’s largely contaminated with carcinogens, endocrine disrupters, growth hormones, gmo crops that proliferate like cancer. There is not viable regulating system here anymore–except the dollar.
May 31st, 2007 at 12:03 am
What I would like to know is why is all of the American beef, fish, etc. going to foreign soils and we get to eat china products? Here this farm wants to import to japan and test all of their cows but we only get the 1% test! The other day in the Dillons store I could not find any fish made from the U.S. it all said made in china.. All the pacific salmon said made in China. what happened to our salmon? a foreign country get to eat it and we get to eat dirty fish in bad waters and possibly tainted?
May 31st, 2007 at 12:11 am
High Note,
Tell the manager of your store that you WILL NOT buy fish from them until they have a U.S. product. Fish is required to be labeled as to Country of Origin, so at least you know and can make the choice.
At this point in time, beef, pork and lamb and veggies are NOT required to be labeled as to COOL, and the USDA stamp confuses consumers into thinking the product is from U.S.A.