BSE Testing

As usual, here is something in the news that makes no sense to me. <a href="http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/hot/bse/news/apr0904bse.html"><acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> won't let firm test its cattle for <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym></a>. A private company wants to set up its own lab and do a rapid test for <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>, which the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> has approved, on all the cattle it slaughters so that it can start shipping beef to Japan again and our fine Government says no.<br />n<!–more–><br />nI've heard the argument against allowing this kind of testing because a false positive would reek havoc on the beef industry. That is easily solved by performing more demanding tests if there is a positive indication. There is also the argument that by testing for <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>, we admit there is a problem. The problem with this is that to export beef to Japan, they are requiring a <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> test. So, Japan feels there is a problem and are requesting it to be done and this company wants to do it. This company ships a product to Japan which indicates to me that it's slaughtering high quality, young beef. Since every study out there concludes that an animal under 30 months of age cannot have <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>, there should be no problem with a positive of any kind. <br />n<br />nI've always made the statement that our Government will do whatever it has to do to keep the farmers and ranchers in this country from prospering since cheap food helps keep the government in power and this is just another example of how it goes about keeping us enslaved to their agenda. It also shows to me that for all our Governments talk of restoring the beef export trade, they really don't want to do what's necessary to see it happen. Just another example of our fine Government standing in the way of people who just want to get the job done.<br />n<br />n<b>Politicians say they're beefing up our economy. Most don't know beef from pork. Harold Lowman</b>