By Kenneth J. Theisen, 4/3/07
In 1906 Upton Sinclair had his book “The Jungle”
published. The book exposed the
unhealthy and deadly conditions of the meat packing industry. As a result, the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration was created to regulate the food and drug industries. Now fast forward a century to the Bush
regime.
Back in 2004, a small Kansas
meatpacker, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef proposed to test all of its cows for
Mad Cow Disease (MCD). Humans who eat
MCD tainted beef can die as a result. Creekstone
should be commended for what it proposes right?
WRONG!
The Bush regime’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) refused
permission to do the testing and threatened to prosecute the meatpacker if it
tested all of its cows. Presently the USDA
tests only one percent of all slaughtered cows for MCD. The USDA controls the sale of testing kits
for Mad Cow Disease and it will not sell Creekstone enough kits to test its
cows. The USDA maintains that allowing Creekstone to test all its beef would undermine
its position that random testing is adequate.
Why should a regime that constantly talks about the free
market curing all problems object to a small company testing all its cows so
that it can ensure that its beef is free of a deadly disease? Well, the largest meatpacking corporations
are against such testing. According to
the president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, “If testing is
allowed at Creekstone we think it would become the international standard and
the domestic standard, too.” Oh my, if
this happens where will consumer protection end?
Creekstone sued the USDA to allow it to do the testing. It
should be no surprise that the Bush regime would be on the side of beef packing
industry in this battle. At the time the suit was brought, the chief of staff
to the Agricultural Secretary Ann Veneman was the head lobbyist of the National
Cattlemen’s Beef Association. One of the
chief advisors to the Secretary was the association’s former associate director
for food policy. In other words the fox
was guarding the chicken house, or in this case, the cow barn.
The USDA under Bush has been in the forefront of opposition
to measures to safeguard the public from Mad Cow Disease. It initially sided with the meatpacking
industry in resisting added testing for the disease. Only after national and
international criticism and boycotts did it even implement minimal rule changes
to protect consumers. It finally
required “downed” cows that had to be dragged into the slaughter house to be
discarded instead of ending up on your bun at a McDonalds” outlet.
Last week on March 29, 2007, a federal judge sided with
Creekstone when he ruled that the meatpacker can test for Mad Cow Disease. Judge James Robertson held that the USDA does
not have the authority to regulate the test.
His ruling is presently on hold to allow the regime time to appeal the
decision. It will be interesting to see
what the Bush regime decides to do now.
Will it now side with the large corporations or the consumer? So far it has sided with the large
corporations. What a surprise!