BSE Warning – Thoughts From The Middle of Nowhere

I have said more than once that I think the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture"><acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym></acronym> is controlled by the big meat packers for their benefit and the detriment of everyone else. I know you think this is the ravings of a deranged individual. Maybe it is but I truly believe it and offer up more <a href="http://www.r-calfusa.com/020405-usda.htm" target="_new">Words of Warning</a>. n n<blockquote>Bullard said that while <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> claims to be taking a world leadership position by formulating a protection plan that it says incorporates the most recently discovered science on <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>, <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> actually has rejected internationally known and established science-based standards in favor of optimistic assumptions based instead on wishful thinking. n n<acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym>'s Final Rule, in the following ways, compromises science acknowledged throughout the rest of the world: n n1. It adopts the Specified Risk Materials (SRM) removal practices recommended by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and practiced in the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) for years except that <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> only includes some high-risk tissues in its SRM removal plan (fewer tissues than included in the standard risk-reduction practices in the UK and the EU). <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym>&'s Final Rule does not begin removal of SRMs at the age where OIE, the UK, and the EU consider it necessary. <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym>'s Final Rule requires SRM removal only from cattle over 30 months of age, while European countries require removal of SRMs in all cattle over 12 months of age. OIE recommends SRM removal from cattle over 6 months of age for countries with the same disease characteristics as Canada. n n2. It adopts a <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> testing/surveillance program as recommended by OIE and as practiced by the UK and the EU for years, except that <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym>'s Final Rule fails to target cattle that enter the human food chain, as recommended by OIE and as practiced by the UK and the EU. n n3. It adopts part of a meat-and-bone meal (MBM) feed ban, as has been recommended by OIE and as practiced by the UK and the EU for years, except that <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> fails to require Canada to have had its feed ban in place for the length of time recommended by OIE. <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym>'s Final Rule also fails to include the same products as the feed bans practiced by the UK and the EU, both of which ban blood and poultry litter from cattle feed.</blockquote> n nAll these rules benefit the big meat packers and put producers and consumers in jeopardy. n n<blockquote>“The <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> standards being incorporated by <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> are inferior to international standards established by OIE, and far below the science-based practices of countries that have successfully reduced the incidence of <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>,” Bullard said. “Canada does not meet the definition of a minimal-risk country, based on international guidelines, and this is why 33 countries still ban Canadian beef. It’s not clear why <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> should force U.S. consumers to be exposed to risks that other countries protect their citizens from.”</blockquote> n nI find the answer simple. The <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> is controlled by the big meat packers, not our elected officials, and is supporting the agenda they want. If that agenda infects Americans with <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> infected cows, too bad. n nRantings of a deranged mind or words of warning coming from the distance. I know what I think. n nAll the familiar horrors we nAssociate with others nAre coming fast along our way: nThe wind is warning in our tree nAnd morning papers still betray nThe shrieking of the mothers. n nPhilip Larkin