I asked him if his cows get tested for BSE/mad cow disease (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and he said his cows are not old enough – 24 months at the oldest – and mad cow is in old cows. He said it’s not a problem in the U.S. and there have only been two cases and those were Canadian cows. Actually there have been four American cows reported with BSE since 2003 according to the CDC.The other day Tony and I were talking about the case Oprah won against the Texas Beef Group[1]. On one of her shows in 1996, this dialogue took place:
Oprah Winfrey: “You said Mad Cow Disease could make AIDS look like the common cold?”
Howard Lyman: “Absolutely.”
Winfrey: “That’s an extreme statement, you know.”
Lyman: “Absolutely. One hundred thousand cows per year in the United States are fine at night, dead in the morning. The majority of those cows are rounded up, ground up, fed back to other cows. If only one of them has Mad Cow Disease, it has the potential to infect thousands.”
Winfrey: “It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger!”[2]
Thirteen states, including Texas, have food disparagement laws. These laws allow food businesses to collect punitive damages and attorney’s fees against a defendant, in addition to any economic damages that stem from the defendant’s statements.[3] The Texas cattlemen sued for $12 million in damages but were unable to prove any false statements were knowingly made against them, and the Texas court decided Oprah could state her opinions under free speech.
A few years later, in December 2003, the first U.S. case of mad cow was found in Washington. The Bush administration put a partial ban in place to prevent “downer cows” – those that are too sick or weak to walk on their own – from entering the food supply. But there was a loophole that if the cows passed inspection and then fell afterward, they could still be dragged to slaughter along with the feces they were pulled through on the way. The Bush administration followed up in 2006 by dramatically scaling back testing for mad cow disease.
Finally in March 2009, Obama closed the loophole and banned all downer cows from the food supply although he said only five percent of the nation’s 150,000 food processing plants are inspected each year. Obama called the country’s food inspection system, “a hazard to public health. It is unacceptable.” Other countries, such as Great Britain, dealt with mad cow disease long ago and banned feeding practices that are still in place in the U.S., which means the disease is likely spreading here undetected.
At least four companies offer test kits that can tell within four hours if a slaughtered cow carries bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Test kits cost about $10 each. Adding in salaries of lab technicians and the cost of delivering cattle brain samples for testing, would increase the total cost of testing to $30. This would add 6-10 cents per pound to the cost of factory beef.[4] Anyone reading this would likely say it’s worth the expense, but the USDA has even tried to ban beef companies from testing their own cows – if people knew what was in their factory meat, they might be afraid to eat it.
After the cattle farm today, we went about 6 miles further down Buckeystown Pike to the alpaca farm to buy warm socks and mittens and visit the alpacas. Isn’t this a cutie?!
[1] Texas Beef Group vs Oprah Winfrey, Harpo Productions, Howard Lyman, King World Production, No. 98-10391; Decided: February 9, 2000.
[2] “Oprah Winfrey vs. The Beef People,” PBS Newshour, January 20, 1998.
[3] “Veggie Libel Laws: Attempts At Silencing Animal Rights Advocates,” Civil Liberties Defense Center, January 2012.
[4] “Mad-Cow Testing on Trial. Should U.S. Start to Screen Every Last Cow, as in Japan? A Negligible Cost Increase,” TM Burton, M Fackler, Wall Street Journal, January 2, 2004.
