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Chicken about cattle: Government wrong to overlook mad cow threat
Tribune Editorial
Mike Leavitt's job is to keep us all healthy, whether it's easy for us or not. So he is stumping around the country warning us about the threat of a bird flu pandemic. He explains that states, cities and households will all have to prepare because any outbreak likely will be too large for the federal government to handle.
Mike Johanns' job is to get us to eat meat, whether it's healthy for us or not. So he is flying around the world belittling the threat of mad cow disease. He refuses to see that it is because the threat from the always-fatal brain-wasting disease is still small, that it is within the power of a dutiful government to contain.
Leavitt, former Utah governor and now secretary of Health and Human Services, is right when he says that a flu pandemic would overwhelm any ability the federal government has to fight it. Even though the Internet wags are quick to ridicule his advice for families to stock up on canned tuna and powdered milk, it's about all that anyone in his position could do.
Johanns, former Nebraska governor and now secretary of Agriculture, is wrong when he says that it is OK for the government to reduce the number of cattle it tests for the ghastly disease that, on the rare occasion it strikes humans, is always fatal. Even though the captains of agribusiness don't want to admit that there is any threat to their product, it is both necessary and simple to turn this policy in the opposite direction, as Japan and other nations have done.
The mad cow-stricken animal found in Alabama this month was only the third known U.S. case. Yet the fact that there are any is frightening.
The only known way for a cow to become infected is to eat other animal products, bits and leavings which bovines are not evolutionarily programmed to consume but once were legally included in cattle feed to boost growth and cut costs.
It's no longer legal to feed cows that stuff. But, unless the government steps up its testing and puts the long-term health of the consumer above the short-term image of the industry, there's no way to know if that law is being obeyed.
If Johanns won't see that, there's no reason why anyone should feel comfortable eating American beef.
Tribune Editorial
Mike Leavitt's job is to keep us all healthy, whether it's easy for us or not. So he is stumping around the country warning us about the threat of a bird flu pandemic. He explains that states, cities and households will all have to prepare because any outbreak likely will be too large for the federal government to handle.
Mike Johanns' job is to get us to eat meat, whether it's healthy for us or not. So he is flying around the world belittling the threat of mad cow disease. He refuses to see that it is because the threat from the always-fatal brain-wasting disease is still small, that it is within the power of a dutiful government to contain.
Leavitt, former Utah governor and now secretary of Health and Human Services, is right when he says that a flu pandemic would overwhelm any ability the federal government has to fight it. Even though the Internet wags are quick to ridicule his advice for families to stock up on canned tuna and powdered milk, it's about all that anyone in his position could do.
Johanns, former Nebraska governor and now secretary of Agriculture, is wrong when he says that it is OK for the government to reduce the number of cattle it tests for the ghastly disease that, on the rare occasion it strikes humans, is always fatal. Even though the captains of agribusiness don't want to admit that there is any threat to their product, it is both necessary and simple to turn this policy in the opposite direction, as Japan and other nations have done.
The mad cow-stricken animal found in Alabama this month was only the third known U.S. case. Yet the fact that there are any is frightening.
The only known way for a cow to become infected is to eat other animal products, bits and leavings which bovines are not evolutionarily programmed to consume but once were legally included in cattle feed to boost growth and cut costs.
It's no longer legal to feed cows that stuff. But, unless the government steps up its testing and puts the long-term health of the consumer above the short-term image of the industry, there's no way to know if that law is being obeyed.
If Johanns won't see that, there's no reason why anyone should feel comfortable eating American beef.
