Comments on: Weapons of Calf Destruction

Weapons of Calf Destruction

CrazyJub — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 08:30:24 -0800

"I guess any self-respecting rancher would have shot, shoveled and shut up, but he didn't do that". An annoyed Premier of Alberta Ralph Klein was quoted saying this on Sept 17th, 2003 at a weekend meeting of U.S. governors and western Canadian premiers in response to the discovery of one case of mad-cow found in his province.
Fast forward to today: USDA refused to release mad cow records , United Press has been requesting these documents since July 10th, 2003 and has been continually stonewalled as recently as Dec 17th ,2003. Especially troubling is the question of where the Canadian mad-cow possibly originated.

By: CrazyJub

CrazyJub — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 08:33:14 -0800

Needless to say, I'm still having beef for Xmas, and I agree with our Canadian government keeping the border open to US beef while this is worked out.

By: ilsa

ilsa — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 08:57:55 -0800

Parts of the cow in question may already have been turned into chickenfeed. Don't worry, the next line says BSE can't be transmitted to humans that way. Now if you will excuse me, I have a nice pork roast to deal with.

By: rough ashlar

rough ashlar — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 08:59:59 -0800

And for people who want to read more about Mad Cows.... Disinfo has a bunch of links

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 09:11:37 -0800

Don't worry, the next line says BSE can't be transmitted to humans that way. Don't know if you're being sardonic, ilsa - the exact quote is rather different - "but the disease has not been shown to be transmissible in this manner, said W. Ron DeHaven, deputy administrator and chief veterinary officer at the USDA." The disease "had not been shown to be" present in the US as of yesterday, but that didn't mean it wasn't in the US. Second, please take with a grain of salt any "safety" pronouncement from the USDA, as I pointed out in the other Mad Cow thread (really, I love seeing this get attention, but did we need two separate threads?).

By: CrazyJub

CrazyJub — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 09:32:05 -0800

Well one was about the BSE discovery, and this one is about a potential discovery 6 months ago. Do they deserve two threads? Yup, they are two different issues.

By: troutfishing

troutfishing — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 10:27:50 -0800

Moo! Moo! MOO! moo! MOO! moo! Moo!

By: troutfishing

troutfishing — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 10:28:42 -0800

Beef - It's what's for dinner.

By: wendell

wendell — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 11:31:01 -0800

Hey, but you can pick up premium turkeys real cheap from the Gov'ment officials who are changing their Christmas Dinners to beef just to show the Public it's safe... </cynicism>

By: namespan

namespan — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 11:38:05 -0800

"but the disease has not been shown to be transmissible in this manner, said W. Ron DeHaven, deputy administrator and chief veterinary officer at the USDA." I share a wariness for this statement. It reminds me too much of the kind of "Well, Saddam has not proven he doesn't have any WMDs" kind of logic. Thalidomide had not been shown to cause problems before... it caused all kinds of problems. I read a Wendell Berry essay weston had posted and tend to think he expresses the problem with the "has not shown to be" line of thinking well.

By: jpoulos

jpoulos — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 12:20:18 -0800

Lots of you have probably already read it, but if you haven't I can not recommend enough Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation. If you read the book, you knew that it was just a matter of time before the US had its own BSE problem.

By: kaibutsu

kaibutsu — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 12:33:12 -0800

Hm. My local paper today has a front page article on some mad cow discovered in Washington. Timely.

By: Fupped Duck

Fupped Duck — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 13:03:55 -0800

If you read the book, you knew that it was just a matter of time before the US had its own BSE problem. You needed a whole book to come to know that? The entire food chain is corrupted by the "Its cheaper if we do it this way" approach to food production. I'm vegan and still, I can't with all due dilligance avoid all the shit thats found in foodstuff. Its just that pervasive.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 13:49:04 -0800

This is probably the most appropriate time to mention that CheapAss games sells Unexploded Cow, a card game in which you have BSE-infected cows and unexploded bombs in France. Brilliant mind that you are, you see a way to solve two problems at one time.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Thu, 25 Dec 2003 11:48:16 -0800

Congress Scuttled Meat Protection Measure

By: wendell

wendell — Thu, 25 Dec 2003 17:28:38 -0800

Here's something that was just leaked from the Center for Disease Prevention and Spin Control, Bovine Spongiform Paranoia Division: Next Monday, they're going to raise the alert level to "Medium Well".

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Fri, 26 Dec 2003 00:34:28 -0800

The Agriculture Department estimates that 130,000 downed animals that are too injured or sick to stand or walk unassisted are slaughtered every year. About 36 million cows are slaughtered each year in the United States. The provision, which started through the legislative process as an amendment to an agriculture spending bill, would have effectively prohibited the sale of livestock too sick or injured to stand or walk unassisted. I think that if I lived in the USA, and were informed of the above two paragraphs, I would have to quit eating meat. It just can't be trusted to be safe. I don't want to know what passes for meat standards in Canada, otherwise I'll have to sell the BBQ. Sigh.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Fri, 26 Dec 2003 23:45:30 -0800

If you think the USDA pronouncement that "all the infectious parts of the animal were removed" can be trusted, Michael Greger will change your mind. This is some seriously messed-up shit.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Sat, 27 Dec 2003 10:10:40 -0800

And now the USA is accusing Canada as the source for the cow. Riiiiight.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 27 Dec 2003 11:56:12 -0800

Every time they repeat that meat is safe to eat, I'm reminded of the EPA and air quality here in NY on and around and since 9/11. It's impossible to believe any of them. It would be interesting to see how much beef lobbyists have contributed to this administration.

By: shoos

shoos — Sat, 27 Dec 2003 20:19:00 -0800

And the Canadians are trying to imply that the US was the source of their mad cow. Riiiiiiiight.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Sat, 27 Dec 2003 21:16:49 -0800

And Mad Cow can ever be counted out in one country or another. Riiiiiiiiight. Notice that at the beginning of the crucial Monday stock market, this will be the story line - cow was from Canada, so absolutely no problem for U.S. - that's current, whether it later proves to be true or not. Nice tapdancing.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sun, 28 Dec 2003 12:11:21 -0800

U.S. Mad Cow Link Questioned in Creutzfeldt-Jakob Cases

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Sun, 28 Dec 2003 14:46:19 -0800

Latest headlines on CNN say that there's no risk at all to consumers. Which is, of course, why import beef was banned when Canada had its single case.

By: shoos

shoos — Mon, 29 Dec 2003 15:31:38 -0800

I nearly got sideswiped by this dude going over 100 mph today.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Mon, 29 Dec 2003 15:54:22 -0800

Cow Parts Used in Candles, Soaps Recalled Cow parts - including hooves, bones, fat and innards - are used in everything from hand cream and antifreeze, to poultry feed and gardening soils. In the next tangled phase of the mad cow investigation, federal inspectors are concentrating on byproducts from the tainted Holstein, which might have gone to a half-dozen distributors in the Northwest...