When the Bush administration made it illegal for slaughterhouses to test all cows for mad cow disease, I thought the American people would be outraged. How could the government justify forbidding citizens to test their food before they eat it?
It turned out that hardly anybody cared.
Until now.
The Bush administration says that if a cow can stand up, it's good enough for human consumption.
So all a slaughterhouse has to do to make the difference between a no-profit sick cow and a government-approved healthy cow is to prod it, shock it, or apply some other stimulus to force the cow to make an effort to get up.
Hallmark Meatpacking Company in San Bernardino got caught on videotape using these tricks.
Dozens of school districts stopped buying their beef, making schools a big player in the beef safety controversy.
According to the FDA, it's unlikely that cows who are standing have mad cow disease, while "downer" cows could very well have the disease. Apparently, the government thinks that cows develop terminal symptoms immediately after ingesting prions. Scientists think it takes many years, and infected cows appear healthy during the incubation period.
Cheeseburger, anyone?
No comments:
Post a Comment