Court: US Can Block Meat Packer From Testing Its Cattle For Mad Cow Disease

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration can prohibit meat packers from testing their animals for mad cow disease, a federal appeals court said Friday.

The dispute pits the Agriculture Department, which tests about 1 percent of cows for the potentially deadly disease, against a Kansas meat packer that wants to test all its animals.

Larger meat packers opposed such testing. If Creekstone Farms Premium Beef began advertising that its cows have all been tested, other companies fear they too will have to conduct the expensive tests.

The Bush administration says the low level of testing reflects the rareness of the disease. Mad cow disease has been linked to more than 150 human deaths worldwide, mostly in Great Britain. Only three cases have been reported in the U.S., all involving cows, not humans.

A federal judge ruled last year that Creekstone must be allowed to conduct the test because the Agriculture Department can only regulate disease "treatment." Since there is no cure for mad cow disease and the test is performed on dead animals, the judge ruled, the test is not a treatment.

Read more: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=:ePkh8BM9EwLbwe3EamJpZGLgcfmnvBAr0C4DFri9xXB7cyH2sggxpeagWGwkMDmj4Zlkkuakt9-n1v58PYn9FxtQzS821pz85MQcANkLGZ4/1-0&fp=48b8e862571c5391&ei=PkC4SM-CNqr6yASu7-DKAw&url=http%3A//www.startribune.com/nation/27659099.ht

[Solly Mack]

1. Amazing

[ixion]

2. ah, more of that rethug brand of "free market" capitalism, I see

:sarcasm: :eyes:

[aquart]

14. Anti-free market competition, pure and simple.

They refuse to allow a small company to gain a competitive edge by giving the consumers what they want.

Go Creekstone!

Will Obama support the free market and allow them to test their cattle?

[bertman]

21. I seriously doubt it. Only 150 reported deaths worldwide. I'd bet more people die from choking on

their food than that each year.


Still, they should be allowed to test it and label it, regardless of what impact it has on large-scale meat packers. After all, it is the "free market". Isn't it?

[nebenaube]

30. they don't report it so it doesn't happen see?

n/t....

[kristopher]

31. Do you have any idea how hard it is to diagnose a disease you aren't looking for?

We have no real idea of how many people are being infected by diseased cattle. It often takes decades for the symptoms to show up, and then they can easily be mistaken for Alzheimer's.

[Pete2069]

33. This depends on who does

The testing for Mad cows.  Our decider censors that
information from Americans ,, what makes you believe you will
receive any information which exposes Bush and Cheney criminal
policies.   What laws applied to Halliburton , Blackwater ,
War contractors or anyone Bush ordained. 
Cheney has his own recycling plant and he is the only supplier
is Cheney.

Mad cow disease could remain hidden in humans for decades;
future death waves possible 
http://www.naturalnews.com/019460.html
http://www.satyamag.com/jan01/lyman.html
http://marcussharpe.com/rachel_7.10.98.html

[bertman]

36. Oh great!!! That spaghetti and meatballs I ate last night ain't sitting so well on my stomach.

But, seriously, I get your point.

Maybe that's why Putin doesn't want our beef.

I've started buying my meat (and veggies too) at the local farmers' market, but that probably doesn't mean anything, does it?

[OnionPatch]

64. And this is why my family doesn't eat non-organic beef.

If anyone believes our country is truly protecting us from Mad Cow disease, they're crazy. We've already seen how much they care about us "consumers."

Mad Cow disease can be diagnosed improperly as Alzheimer's disease and no one would ever know.

[The Croquist]

63. I agree

I think Mad Cow, Bird Flu and SARS are all tremendously overstated however since when has it been a crime to play it safe or do a little marketing?

I can see the add "100% Tested Mad Cow Free". I wouldn't pay a dollar more a pound for it but if you want to pay extra, fine. I'll see you at the cash register.

[krkaufman]

49. "free market" is a ruse. (obviously) It's all about cronyism ...

... and the Republican Party protecting the big money interests... large meat producers.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Is there any way this can sound like this admin is interested in the welfare of the American people?

[harun]

62. It's interested in the welfare of the top 1% of its people, not that that counts

[cbmanchester]

4. They "can" but why would they?

[LeftyMom]

7. Because they know what they'll find.

If the results would increase public confidence in their product, they'd be screaming them from the heavens and running ads in prime time.

[krkaufman]

50. Because some customers would be willing to pay extra ...

... for beef that has been 100% tested. It should be startling that a business is being prevented from producing a product requested by customers.

[sakabatou]

5. Testing food is bad for America!

Gooooo contaminates!

[stillcool]

6. I feel like I'm living in a dream..

this can not be real.

[fascisthunter]

8. Yeah... well watch beef sales drop... fuck em

sick greedy bastards putting human life at risk. Where's your pro-life BS now, righties?

[Grinchie]

40. They are still Pro Life, but they don't give a damn about Quality of life

They'll force an unwanted pregancy to term, then kill it by witholding medical care necessary for it to survive.

They'll weaken the populace with disease, and steal their money, start war in the People's name, and send the not yet sick or dying populace to War.

But as long as they bear earnings estimates, all is well in the world.

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. "...the low level of testing reflects the rareness of the disease..."

It couldn't be, of course, that low incidence of reported cases reflect the rareness of the testing, could it?

It's like the old joke about the drunk searching for his car key beneath the streetlight - a passerby asks "where did you drop it?" "Over by that car." "Then why are you looking over here?" "Because this is where the light is!"

You won't find anything if you don't LOOK for it.

[FiveGoodMen]

52. So right!

:applause:

[Stellabella]

10. This is a misleading statement:

"Only three cases have been reported in the U.S., all involving cows, not humans."

They don't know that. How many cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease occur in this country every year? How do they know that's not from BSE? And how many people are developing it right now??

[BrotherBuzz]

11. Right you are.

Wife was saying that same thing - I can't spell for crap so I couldn't Google™ it. Thanks and welcome to DU

[Stellabella]

12. Thanks!

I couldn't spell it either, so searched "Mad Cow" and it popped up. Copy and paste is my friend!

:hi:

[BrotherBuzz]

51. 50,000 expected to protest RNC

I do expect to hear daily reports from DUers on the ground, and that includes you! You have joined DU at a most auspicious time.

[Stellabella]

56. Well, I'd love to, but I have two book deadlines next week.

So I just can't. But I'll be there in spirit.

[Q3JR4]

29. Google it anyway?

I'd say just sort of sound it out (I would have). The first underlined link you see should say something like "Did you mean: Creutzfeldt Jacob?"

Q3JR4.
Google's built in spell check is my friend. :)

[Fovea]

24. EXACTLY!

It isn't BSE, it's another Prion based syndrome entirely.

Of course, they ain't sayin where those prions are coming from.

Having worked with patients with CJD, I would rather put a gun to my head.
And when *I* say that, you know its bad.

[Kali]

58. because it is a different form of the disease

[Stellabella]

65. And the government is keeping careful track of that?

I doubt that eight years of Bush ruin has kept up with the latest science and stats on these diseases.

[Kali]

69. despite the efforts of the repukes to gut virtually anything good about this country

yes I trust there are real, ethical, scientists still working IN government and in academia on this issue

[Stellabella]

70. I don't doubt that there are real, ethical scientists in government.

The point is, are the facts getting out to us? I don't believe one damn thing the Bush misadministration has ever said.

Why not be as careful as possible on this issue?

[awoke_in_2003]

13. "low level of testing reflects the rareness of the disease"

Does that mean that since polio has a low level of incidence, we should stop vaccinating our children for it?

[Fovea]

25. In the book 'House of God' by Samuel Shem...

Med Resident "The Fat Man" says--

If you don't want to find a fever, don't take a temperature.

[aquart]

15. file not found on the link.

[Purveyor]

26. Try this one...

http://www.startribune.com/nation/27659099.html?elr=KArksUUUU

[Frisbee]

16. Is there something wrong with my logic here?

The Ag Dept says the disease is extremely rare, so they are going to test for it using an extremely small sample size? Doesn't that reduce the chance of catching it if a cow was infected to nearly zero? Isn't that kind of backwards? :crazy:

[barbtries]

17. welcome to bush world

up is down and all that.

[hootinholler]

19. Yes, but it does allow the truthful claim

We test for Mad Cow.

-Hoot

[marias23]

18. Another Good Reason to Go Meatless

Try "American Wholefoods Cuisine"

[skyounkin]

20. They are also

betting that most americans will take their chances at not catching mad cow and not care.

I know I do.

[Quantess]

39. Fake meat has gotten really delicious the past few years.

It's tastier than real meat, a lot of the time.

[Native]

53. or organic n/t

[Stern21]

22. Un. Fucking. Believable.

Somebody call Denny Crane.

[bobthedrummer]

23. K&R

Btw, George Walker Bush signed an Executive Order July 30, 2008 that allows nonconsensual human experimentation to be conducted in total secrecy by "intelligence agency directors"-which is another criminal, unconstitutional act.

"A new Bush executive order (EO) includes an old waiver that allows human subject protections to be modified or waived by intelligence directors in complete secrecy."

Source: "Nonconsensual experiments are unconstitutional but recent changes in the law allow just that" by Cheryl Welsh (Mind Justice August, 2008)
http://www.mindjustice.org/unconstitutional.htm

:argh:

[bertman]

38. Why the fuck do OUR DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSPERSONS NOT FIGHT THIS STUFF??!!!

We don't even hear about it.

This is appalling.

Nonconsensual human experimentation. If that means what I think it does, we are right back to where the Nazis were during their heyday.

[L0oniX]

27. I don't know why the cows get so mad but I do know why I am mad about this.

So how much does the beef industry contribute to the pockets of congress people?

[Hekate]

28. Ye gods when will this nightmare end? nt

[guyton]

32. Buffalo!

When I first read about this policy is when I decided to stop eating beef.

Buffalo is widely available here, and it's darn good!

[TrogL]

34. I just checked my copy of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

...and that logic ain't in there.

[AlphaCentauri]

35. That must be the reason Putin don't want to more US meat

[Grinchie]

37. You think they recall beef only for E.Coli contamination?

Thats what they say, but deep down you know that they hide behind that story contamination as well to prevent the industry from smothering under it's own corruption.

There are afraid that Creekstone would find more Mad Cow that the EPA is willing to acknowledge, making USDA, Fema and the Homeland Security departments look like the inept organizations they really are.

Next thing you know, they will regulate Lead Paint test kits.

[debunkthelies]

41. How's this for starters..

My daughter went to work in a rest home recently, (INFINIA) and there is a man there with mad cow disease, it's incurable, and she had to wear the equivalent of a haz-mat suit to care for him. The man is in his mid-thirties and is waiting to die. It is a horrible disease.
This I'm sure is just one of many stories, but with the courts decision on mad cow, eating beef for my family is no longer an option.:puke: :scared:

[Kali]

59. I call bull shit.

between the lack of correct medical terminology and the anecdotal format I don't believe you. Got any proof?

[Grinchie]

42. Court bars meatpacker tests for mad cow

Source: Reuters


By Charles Abbott

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Agriculture Department is within bounds to bar meatpackers from testing slaughter cattle for mad cow disease, a U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in a 2-1 ruling on Friday.

Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC, a small Arkansas packer, filed suit on March 23, 2006, to gain access to mad-cow test kits. It said it wanted to test every animal at its plant to assure foreign buyers that the meat was safe to eat.

Three U.S. cases of mad cow disease, a fatal neurological infection, have been reported, the last in March 2006. People can contract a human version of the disease by eating infected meats. Most nations banned U.S. beef after the first case, in December 2003, but trade has been restored for the most part.

In a 25-page ruling, Appellate Judges Karen Henderson and Judith Rogers said USDA has authority under the 1913 Virus-Serum-Toxin Act to prevent sale of mad-cow test kits to meatpackers. USDA interprets the law to control products for "prevention, diagnosis, management or care of diseases of animals."

David Sentelle, chief judge of the District of Columbia appeals circuit, dissented from the decision. He said USDA "exceeds the bounds of reasonableness" for a law enacted to prevent the sale of ineffective animal medicine.

Anyone in the know why a test would be lumped in to the same category as

"any worthless, contaminated, dangerous, or harmful
virus, serum, toxin, or analogous product intended for use in the treatment of domestic
animals"?


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2928450820080829?sp=true

[Joanne98]

43. What are they hiding?

[kestrel91316]

44. IMHO they are hiding a serious BSE problem in this country.

Remember, the only way to be sure someone who died of Alzheimer's REALLY died of Alzheimer's is to do adequate postmortem testing, and generally they don't on elderly people who fade away of senility.

If you hide the human cases by not looking and you hide the animal cases by not looking, you can completely deny you have a problem.

There is a form of BSE (actually called BASE) that produces the exact sort of amyloidotic plaque in cows that they see in humans with Alzheimer's.

[thecrow]

47. That's why I quit eating beef

but I fear for the other years of my life that I ate it.
I do not want to be that kind of a burden on my family.

[Greyskye]

45. Yet another issue that the Obama administration will have to fix

:banghead:


:kick: & R

[stubtoe]

46. Oh no! You can't actually LOOK for it - you might FIND it!

Interesting now that a meatpacker WANTS to test, they are not allowed to do so.

[alfredo]

67. That court is stacked: 9 Reps and 4 Dems, but no partisanship can

be found in this decision. Sentelle, a Reagan appointment was in Dissent.

David B. Sentelle, Chief Judge
Reagan
Douglas H. Ginsburg
Reagan
Karen LeCraft Henderson
GHW Bush
A. Raymond Randolph
GHW Bush
Judith W. Rogers
Clinton
David S. Tatel
Clinton
Merrick B. Garland
Clinton
Janice Rogers Brown
GW Bush
Thomas B. Griffith
GW Bush
Brett M. Kavanaugh
GW Bush
Harry T. Edwards
Carter
Laurence H. Silberman
Reagan
Stephen F. Williams
Reagan

[krkaufman]

48. Gotta love that free market.

A meat producer wants to provide a superior product, but is prohibited from doing so by the Republican Administration. Given the recent salmonella outbreak, Obama's campaign should be jumping on this issue and forcing McCain to agree to allowing the company the freedom to run their business without government interference.

What a glaring example of Republicans putting profits ahead of people.

[bluesmail]

54. IMO Mad Cow ifacillitates Alzheimers. Am I shocked? Not really. n/t

[proud progressive]

55. for once, i agree with the criminals in the whitehouse

it pains me to agree with those bastards, but i do. why? because we are such a paranoid society that sooner or later we would believe that we really have the need. the fact is that mcd is such a small risk that adding this test to all cows would be a waste of money.
on the other hand......... B-)

[nvme]

60. if one cow is found to have it

It starts a scandal. Our big beef producers don't want to risk the possibility of having to test for the disease. If you don't look then you won't find

[TrogL]

71. They found another case in Alberta, Canada last week

What makes you think it isn't a risk?

[Kali]

57. it is ridiculous that creekstone (and others) are being blocked from

testing at their own expense as they see fit

having said that the argument that the low testing percentages is the only reason for low results is a little bit illogical. The fact is the disease IS rare and no matter how askeered the sensationalist fearmongers want you to be, the meat supply (even the factory raised crap) is pretty damn safe.

100% testing for the whole country would be expensive (not just for the test, but the entire adjustment to processing) and the correct analogy might be more like getting a cat scan every single time you went to the doctor - not practical or needed.

[Eric J in MN]

61. Congress intended for the Ag Dept to set FLOORS regarding...

...how well food companies protect the public.

Congress didn't intend for the Ag Dept to set CEILINGS to limit how well food companies protect the public.

[fasttense]

66. An enterprising entrepreneur would develop an At Home Test

for Mad Cow disease and sell it on the internet. Hell they can't stop everyone from testing their tainted beef.

[Jack Rabbit]

68. Small is beautiful

Those with corporate elephantiasis are jealous that they can't compete.