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What the Consumers are Reading

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Anonymous

Guest
Good advertisement for Robert Mac :wink: :lol:


USDA anagram for Madness?
Published June 1st, 2007 in commentary
The US Government wants you to feel safe about the beef you eat. So safe that they’ve banned independent BSE (mad cow) testing!

The Associated Press notes that the Bush administration “will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease. The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. A beef producer in the western state of Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wants to test all of its cows,” but the US government has said such private testing is illegal. “U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that Creekstone sought to use the same test the government relies on and said the government didn’t have the authority to restrict it. The ruling was scheduled to take effect June 1, but the Agriculture Department said Tuesday it would appeal, effectively delaying the testing until the court challenge has played out.” Way back in 1997, the book Mad Cow USA by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber exposed the US government’s failure to protect cattle and people against this bizarre and always fatal brain disease, including the failure to adequately test US cattle. One decade later the US cover-up continues.


Canada has had 11 BSE cases in recent history, the latest one this year already. Each month 30,000 head of Canadian cattle flood across the Washington State border alone, destined for slaughter. How many of these cattle are coming through untested, unscreened and carrying BSE? It is shear idiocy on the part of the USDA, the President, Congress, the American Beef Industry, and the American Consumer to allow this ban to go forward.

The only way to assure the meats you eat aren’t tainted by BSE or anything else is to buy locally from a farmer or rancher you can trust, from a herd you can see, which is preferably grass-fed. Demand locally produced meats from sources which aren’t trying to hide anything. Don’t accept Government Bull, take my steer in the right direction.

http://kitchengardens.net/2007/06/01/usda-anagram-for-madness/
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Big Muddy rancher said:
This sounds like they should be buying meat from Canada.


"meats from sources which aren’t trying to hide anything. "

I don't see anyone in Canada testing ALL....Just following the hind teat USDA offers....
 

Manitoba_Rancher

Well-known member
30,000 head of cattle in a month is flooding? Thats only 1000 head per day. What does that amount of cattle amount to in to the daily US slaughter?
 

RobertMac

Well-known member
...buy locally from a farmer or rancher you can trust...

Trust is how beef's market share can be turned around. Consumers that can afford to buy beef will never trust the large food corporations, no matter how cheap they sell beef.....and these corporations dig their hole deeper with every melamine, E.coli issue and buy stopping BSE testing. How any producer can believe we have a future with the large packers is beyond me!
 

Jason

Well-known member
RobertMac said:
...buy locally from a farmer or rancher you can trust...

Trust is how beef's market share can be turned around. Consumers that can afford to buy beef will never trust the large food corporations, no matter how cheap they sell beef.....and these corporations dig their hole deeper with every melamine, E.coli issue and buy stopping BSE testing. How any producer can believe we have a future with the large packers is beyond me!


You better go back and read the interview with the chef from the Colorado restaraunt Callicrate is involved with.

He specifically said some of their clientele felt that only a large corporation could handle the paper work involved with making sure their food was safe.

He said some others felt only small arm fresh food was safe...looks like you can't pidgeon hole all consumers.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
He specifically said some of their clientele felt that only a large corporation could handle the paper work (or electronic) involved with making sure their food was safe.

Ah ,ScoringAg!
 

RobertMac

Well-known member
The paper work for all the large packers said their food was safe.....until it made people sick and got recalled!!!!!!!!
 

Mike

Well-known member
He specifically said some of their clientele felt that only a large corporation could handle the paper work involved with making sure their food was safe.

Yea sure Jason.

"Some" of their clientele could be 1 or 2 out of a thousand.

Who is always getting hit with E-Coli contaminations?
 

Jason

Well-known member
Go read the article ..this is Callicrate's number 1 guy.

He serves the consumer everyday, you think he is going to mention 1 or 2 people that think that?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Jolley on the testing decision:
"We believe that this ruling is a critical first step to finally determine the true extent of Mad Cow Disease in the US. Allowing private companies to test for Mad Cow Disease will also ensure greater transparency in the testing process and better access to information for the consumers."

(Source: FoodConsumer.org, June 1, 2007)
Dr. Tony Milici, CEO of GeneThera, reacting to a judge’s decision that the USDA does not have authority to private testing.


>PS: Regardless of the science behind it, the feds saying no to testing is tantamount to a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. It doesn’t engender confidence among our prospective trading partners.

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=134657
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
6/4/2007 7:10:20 AM
Appealing the Creekstone case
by Steve Cornett


Your reporter remains skeptical about USDA’s refusal to allow voluntary BSE testing. As has been argued before, it’s not that voluntary testing is needed or the expense justified.

That’s not the question.

It’s a matter of the proper role of government and the fact that, from a public relations angle, this looks awful.

It looks like there is something to hide. When USDA announced last week that it would appeal the ruling allowing Creekstone to conduct voluntary testing, it made the consumer news. As usual--as can be expected--the stories were uniformly pro-testing.

If you remain in agreement with the agency on this, please go to this MSNBC story and look at the poll results, then scan the comments.

While granting that this is a bit skewed—normal people don’t participate in polls or watch MSNBC—your reporter frets about the near-unanimous condemnation and the freaky language.

The cattle industry’s best thinkers agree with USDA on this, and history has taught me to tread carefully when I’m on a different track than they. NCBA, for instance, does not just jump to hasty conclusions.

But I suspect they're overly scared of false positives. I think false positives will be like booster shots for the "anti panic" vaccine that has helped consumers react intelligently to recent scares.

Yes, testing will add an uncessary expense. But not nearly as much as those voluntary natural and organic claims add. There is a market for them, and one presumes that at least some of those markets are additive. That is to say, a few people will buy "organic" beef that would otherwise buy no beef at all.

The same would probably be true of BSE tested product.

Voluntary testing should be carefully monitored, but USDA should change course on this. Not for food safety, nor to protect the public. BSE is not a significant health risk in the U.S. Just as a matter of fairness and keeping government’s nose out of private business.

http://www.agweb.com/get_article.aspx?pageid=136275&src=agcmt


-------------------------------------------------------------

MSNBC Survey

Should widespread testing for mad cow disease be allowed? * 4909 responses

Absolutely. I want to know what's in my burger before I eat it.
86%

Not if it makes my steak more expensive.
8.7%

I don't know.
1.7%

I don't eat beef.
3.3%

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18926470/
 
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