USDA Finds Over 1,000 Violations of Mad Cow Rules

[kerrygoddess]

USDA Finds Over 1,000 Violations of Mad Cow Rules
August 15th, 2005
I’m mad… MAD… MAD… MAD… I just ate a hamburger for dinner and for dessert, I read this:

USDA finds 1,000 violations of mad cow rules

Federal food safety inspectors found more than 1,000 instances since 2004 where U.S. meat plants cut corners or violated regulations aimed at preventing the spread of mad cow disease, the U.S. Agriculture Department said Monday.

The USDA said it released documents to the American Meat Institute and the consumer group Public Citizen showing that federal inspectors filed 1,036 noncompliance reports from January 2004 to May 2005 involving the removal of the brain, skull and spinal cord of cattle aged 30 months and older.

The materials are considered to carry the highest risk in spreading the brain-wasting disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The USDA banned them from the human food supply a few days after the December 2003 discovery of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease in a Washington state dairy cow.

MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=255

[Maru Kitteh]

1. The USDA actually FORBADE a producer from having their cows tested

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-03-25-our-view-usat_x.htm

Beef firm faces perplexing resistance to mad cow tests
Creekstone Farms Premium Beef is a small producer of high-quality beef in Kansas. But it's making a big point about mad cow disease. It wants to privately test all of the cattle it slaughters for the illness, which can cause a fatal brain disease in humans who eat infected meat. The way Creekstone Farms sees it, 100% testing would reassure U.S customers. The company also says it is talking with Japan about restarting exports there, where total testing is required.
But the firm has run into surprising obstacles: from the federal government, which has pledged to do everything possible to detect the disease, and from the meat industry, which has scrambled to keep consumer confidence since December. That's when the first U.S. case of mad cow was found in a Washington cow imported from Canada.

Their reasoning is as confounding as government foot-dragging over approving private testing. And it ill-serves confused customers who are looking for stronger assurances that the meat they buy is safe.
(snip)

I quit eating all red meat long before I went Veg, and I am SO GLAD.

It's despicable, the way the govt. is yanking the strings for the meat monopolies.

[Mairead]

2. Remember to support industry self-policing. Corporations always have our

best interests at heart and would never do anything harmful just to increase their profits. <--(for the sarcasm-impaired: that's sarcasm)

Suspect animal parts should never be allowed to enter ANY food supply! The idea that they're only supposed to be kept out of the HUMAN food supply is saddening and infuriating. It also guarantees that abattoirs will make 'mistakes'. Such material should be strictly controlled, tracked, and destroyed by incineration, with massive, put-you-out-of-business fines for violations.

[Touchdown]

3. And government does nothing good for us, right?

"Companies are over-regulated. Get the big bad government off our backs!"

Yeah, shut them down, and we all can eat tainted meat for twice the price it was when regulated. The free market solves everything.:eyes: