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BUSH CARES LESS ABOUT MAD COW DISEASE THAN MONEY: SOUTH KOREA IN UPROAR OVER DANGEROUS, UNTESTED BEEF

Fri, 21 Jun 2008 02:09:42 GMT

posted by TomUsher

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Posted:
Friday, June 20, 2008
@ 7:09:42 PM (PST)
By Tom Usher

The Bush administration is protecting the U.S. beef industry from having to test all its cattle. The Japanese test all cattle and all beef. If they can do it, so can we.

However, this whole beef industry is wrongheaded. People don't need to eat beef. Cattle take up too much land for grazing. They pollute water. The industry pumps cattle full of hormones and antibiotics. That's not good because the hormones negatively impact upon people's health and the use of antibiotics in this way weakens antibiotics and strengthens pathogens. They do it to cause the cattle to put on weight.

Beef costs much more than other foods to produce because of the feed, slaughtering, packaging, refrigeration (energy), transportation (energy and global warming), and on and on. It drives up the price of other foods because land that could be used for human food crops is otherwise used. Also, the whole food industry must have a higher overhead just to support the system of having so much beef in the retail stores.

Meat Wars
Why Are Those Wacky Koreans Dissin' Our Beef?
By Mike Whitney

20/06/08 "ICH" -- - You wouldn't know it from reading the newspapers, but the streets of Seoul are packed with tens of thousands of angry protestors who've brought business and government to a standstill. The demonstrations have dragged on for more than a month and show no sign of ending anytime soon. President Lee Myung-Bak's decision to lift the ban on US beef imports has set off a political firestorm that is likely to bring down the government and put the kibosh on free trade agreements for years to come.

On Tuesday, the powerful Korean Confederation of Trade Unions threatened to call a general strike if the meat-deal with Washington was not rescinded. If the unions strike, the whole capital will shut down. That's why the politicians are scrambling for solutions.

South Korea suspended the purchase of US beef in 2003 after an incident of mad cow was reported in Washington state. Many Koreans still don't believe the government's assurances that the meat is safe and they may have a point. According to the LA Times the USDA tests less than 1% of cattle. (USDA Mad Cow Madness" LA Times) In contrast, Japan tests every cow that enters the food chain.

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Tags: beef, beef imports, beef industry, Bush administration, energy, food chain, food industry, free trade agreement, human food crops, Japan, Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, LA Times, Lee Myung-Bak, mad cow disease, Mike Whitney, protestors, retail stores, Seoul, South Korea, United States, USDA.
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Massachusetts patient tested for mad cow disease (AP)

Sun, 21 Jul 2008 00:55:43 GMT

posted by prvtfin

Public health directors in Massachusetts are investigating whether a patient in a Cape Cod mash has the human form of mad cow disease.

More: - The rest...

More Mad Cow?

Mon, 13 May 2008 17:15:56 GMT

posted by Yum

WASHINGTON— The Bush administration on Friday urged a federal appeals court to stop meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease, but a skeptical judge questioned whether the government has that authority.

The government seeks to reverse a lower court ruling that allowed Arkansas City, Kan.-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef to conduct more comprehensive testing to satisfy demand from overseas customers in Japan and elsewhere.

Less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows are currently tested for the disease under Agriculture Department guidelines. The agency argues that more widespread testing does not guarantee food safety and could result in a false positive that scares consumers.

“They want to create false assurances,” Justice Department attorney Eric Flesig-Greene told a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

But Creekstone attorney Russell Frye contended the Agriculture Department’s regulations covering the treatment of domestic animals contain no prohibition against an individual company testing for mad cow disease, since the test is conducted only after a cow is slaughtered. He said the agency has no authority to prevent companies from using the test to reassure customers.

“This is the government telling the consumers, `You’re not entitled to this information,’” Frye said.

Chief Judge David B. Sentelle seemed to agree with Creekstone’s contention that the additional testing would not interfere with agency regulations governing the treatment of animals.

“All they want to do is create information,” Sentelle said, noting that it’s up to consumers to decide how to interpret the information.

Larger meatpackers have opposed Creekstone’s push to allow wider testing out of fear that consumer pressure would force them to begin testing all animals too. Increased testing would raise the price of meat by a few cents per pound.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. Three cases of mad cow disease have been discovered in the U.S. since 2003.

The district court’s ruling last year in favor of Creekstone was supposed to take effect June 1, 2007, but the Agriculture Department’s appeal has delayed the testing so far.

source: ap

DUBYA GUMP AND HIS ILK TRIES TO "STOP" MAD COW TESTING OF MEAT PACKERS!!!

Mon, 13 May 2008 15:24:55 GMT

posted by Foxx
WE ALL NEED TO "STOP" EATING MEAT, "NOW"!!! WTF??? DUBYA GUMP AND HIS ADMIN TRIES TO "BLOCK" MAD COW TESTING MY MEAT PACKERS!!! CLICK HERE: The Bush administration tries to block Mad Cow testing by Meat packers By: John Amato @ 4:00 PM - PDT

This is a very interesting battle:

The Bush administration on Friday urged a federal appeals court to "STOP" meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease, but a skeptical judge questioned whether the government has that authority.

The government seeks to reverse a lower court ruling that allowed Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef to conduct more comprehensive testing to satisfy demand from overseas customers in Japan and elsewhere.

But Creekstone attorney Russell Frye contended the Agriculture Department’s regulations covering the treatment of domestic animals contain no prohibition against an individual company testing for mad cow disease, since the test is conducted only after a cow is slaughtered.

He said the agency has no authority to prevent companies from using the test to reassure customers.

Larger meatpackers have opposed Creekstone’s push to allow wider testing out of fear that consumer pressure would force them to begin testing all animals too. Increased testing would raise the price of meat by a few cents per pound….read on

With costs for food rising so much under Bush, I still think people wouldn’t mind paying a few cents more to make sure they don’t get Mad Cow from the meat they eat. (h/t Chris)

Filed Under: Health/Science
Tags: health

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Tags: MAD COW DISEASE, MAD COW TESTING, HEALTH/SCIENCE

Prions

Sat, 9 Mar 2008 07:52:34 GMT

posted by paulie11

Last February, The Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. of Chino, Calif., recalled 143.4 million pounds of beef contaminated with meat from cattle that were susceptible to mad cow disease as well as E. coli and salmonella bacteria.
The meat went to about 37 million pounds went to government nutrition programs, including schools, since October 2006.
The chance of consumers being exposed to mad cow disease is “negligible,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. Nearly all the meat has been consumed or is being withheld from distribution. Still it warrants concern. The incidence of prion diseases such as mad cow disease is on the rise.

A prion, short for proteinaceous infectious particle, is an infectious agent which hypothetically is composed only of protein. Prions cause a number of diseases including bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE aka “mad cow disease”) in a variety of mammals, including cattle and humans. All known prion diseases affect the structure of neural tissue, including the brain, and all prion diseases are currently untreatable and fatal.

The Term “Prion” can refer to both the theoretical unit of infection or the specific protein (e.g. PrP) that is thought to be the infectious agent, whether or not it is in an infective state.

Protein is fascinating biologically. All animals and insects must have protein to survive. Whole protein does not exist in a natural state on Earth. So animals have to synthesize whole protein from it’s constituent parts: animo acids. Proteins are necessary because they can fold into a nearly infinite number and type of shapes. The shapes themselves dictate biologic function mechanically. These proteins form the building blocks of nerve tissue and muscle as well as DNA and RNA. Bacteria and viruses are basically highly complex aggregations of protein.

As an animal goes through it’s day, due to random chance, a few proteins per thousand will become “unfolded.” These are normally electrically “washed out” of the brain during sleep.

Prions are believed to infect and propagate by refolding abnormally into a protein structure which is able to convert normal molecules of the protein into the abnormally structured form. All known prions induce the formation of an amyloid fold, in which the protein polymerises into an aggregate consisting of tightly packed beta sheets. This altered structure is extremely stable and accumulates in infected tissue, causing cell death and tissue damage. This stability means that prions are resistant to denaturation by chemical and physical agents, making disposal and containment of these particles difficult.

Proteins showing prion behaviour are also found in some fungi. This has been very important in helping to understand mammalian prions. However, fungal prions do not appear to cause disease in their hosts and may even confer an evolutionary advantage through a form of protein-based inheritance.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)
Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD)
Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker Syndrome
Fatal Familial Insomnia
Kuru

Prion diseases or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are a family of rare progressive neurodegenerative disorders that affect both humans and animals. They are distinguished by long incubation periods, characteristic spongiform changes associated with neuronal loss, and a failure to induce inflammatory response. As you can see from the slide below, it turns a cows brain into swiss cheese, almost literally.