you can’t run away on harvest day 231cies restrict feeding cow tissue directly to other cows, but still allow cows to be
fed to other animals (like chickens) and the waste from the chickens to be fed
back to the cows. Since prions aren’t destroyed by extreme heat or any known
drug, they readily survive this food- chain loop- de-loop. Cow blood (yum) may
also be dinner for other cows and calves, and restaurant plate wastes can also
be served.
After the first detected case of U.S. mad cow disease, fi fty- two countries
banned U.S. beef. The USDA then required 2 percent of all the downer cows to
be tested, and 1 percent of all cows that were slaughtered. After that, the num-
ber of downer cows reported in the United States decreased by 20 percent (did
I mention it was voluntary reporting?), and only two more cases of BSE were
detected. In May 2006, the USDA decided the threat was so low that only one-
tenth of one percent of all slaughtered cows needed to be tested. Jean Hal-
loran, the food policy initiatives director at Consumers Union, responded, “It
approaches a policy of don’t look, don’t fi nd.”
How can consumers respond to this? Can we seek out beef tested as BSE-
free by the meat packers? No. One company tried to test all its beef, but the
USDA declared that illegal (possibly to protect any BSE cows from embarrass-
ment). Would I suggest a beef boycott? Heavens, no; cows are our friends (plus,
I believe that would be illegal). But it might be worth remembering this: not a
single case of BSE, anywhere, has ever turned up in cattle that were raised and
finished on pasture grass or organic feed. As for the other 99 percent of beef in
the United States, my recommendation would be to consider the words of Gary
Weber, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association head of regulatory affairs:
“The consumers we’ve done focus groups with are comfortable that this is a very
rare disease.”
For more information visit http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow.html.
STEVEN L. HOPP