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May 16, 2008
Bush Administration Fights Mad Cow Testing
 Can you believe it? Last week, the Bush administration urged a federal appeals court to stop Creekstone Farms, a Kansas meatpacker, and other companies from testing all of their animals for BSE. You probably are asking yourself, why the federal government continues to fight attempts by independent meatpackers to test their products for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), better known as Mad Cow Disease. Certainly I do.
My obsession with Mad Cow began that day when I was one of the guests on Oprah, when Howard Lyman (the cattle rancher turned vegan) exposed the practices that could lead to a Mad Cow outbreak and shocked Oprah into saying she would never eat another cheeseburger again). Today, more than ten year later, less than one percent of all slaughtered cows are testing for BSE under current US guidelines.
The White House opposition to the Creekstone plan is based on the administration's belief that such independent tests not performed by federal agencies could result in "false positives" that could needlessly alarm consumers. Larger meatpackers also have objected to Creekstone's plans, saying that it could create unfair pressure on them to test all their animals for BSE, which could result in higher costs and, ultimately, higher consumer prices.
But what goes unsaid in these back and forth discussions is what we as the consumer want: a 100% safe food supply. No one wants to take a chance of biting into a burger and winding up in the hospital with BSE – or even E.Coli or any other harmful bacteria. Late yesterday yet another ground beef recall was announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service; this time it is 22,481 pounds of ground beef because the product might contain pieces of plastic. (For more information on this recall visit the USDA Recall Site).
Increased testing for BSE is a good thing, it gives both the industry and consumers more information – and will increase the amount of trust we have in our food supply. In the most recent SupermarketGuru.com Consumer Panel Survey, twenty-seven percent of our panel said that our "food supply is not safe".
The good news for consumers is that so far, at least, the courts seem to be siding with Creekstone; the company already has won this case in the lower courts, and, not a surprise, the Bush administration to trying to get that ruling reversed.
What do you think?
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