Finding Mad Cow in Oregon puts a new wrinkle in the high protein
diet, doesn’t it? What’s a person to do that wants to eat more
meat, not less?
Are you Eating Less Meat Due to Mad Cow Disease?
Not the people I’ve spoken with. Most are saying, “Yipee, beef’s
on sale!” The food industry has done a great job of convincing us
they are providing a safe food supply and we’ve been lulled into
a false sense of security. Nothing could be further from the
truth.
In July 1988, a ban was introduced in the UK which prohibited the
use of the remains of sheep in cattle feed. BSE is thought to
have spread to cattle from feed including meat and bone meal made
from sheep suffering from a similar brain disease, called
scrapie.
Ban Not Properly Enforced
Unfortunately the ban was not enforced properly for many years
and remained a paper exercise (exactly as it has been in the US
ever since).
Francis Anthony, a Herefordshire veterinary surgeon, and the
British Veterinary Association’s spokesman on BSE said, “If the
ban had been enforced properly from the start, I have no
hesitation in saying categorically that we should be seeing only
a few cases today. But that contaminated feed was being given to
animals until at least 1995, and possibly a year later.”
The false sense of security for us in the US came from it being
widely reported that the practice had been banned. They failed to
make it clear that this was a “voluntary ban.” Even I falsely
believed they had long ago ended this practice until the recent
news reports that it is still being done. Despite there being a
clear connection between feeding rendered animals to animals
causing Mad Cow disease, the meat and dairy industry continues
the practice to this day. Why? Corporate greed, plain and simple.
It is a cheap source of “protein” and makes cows and other
animals fatten faster. A fatter animals weighs more, and they are
sold by weight.
I have no doubt that people in the US aren’t getting excited
about the threat or beginning to avoid beef simply because no
people have been reported with the disease. After all, this was a
sick cow, not a human. Hence, people do not consider it a direct
threat. Amazingly they don’t consider those with CJD
(Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) a variant of Mad Cow as being related
when clearly it is.
The Costs of Clean Meat Supply
The meat and dairy industry will now begin a campaign to make the
higher cost of clean meat seem a ridiculous indulgence rather
than a possibly life saving measure. It does cost more to have a
clean food supply. I and my family are worth it, are you and
yours?
For excellent reference materials read Fast Food Nation by Eric
Schlosser, The Crazy Makers by Carol Simontacchi, and Mad Cowboy:
Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher who Won’t Eat Meat by Howard
F. Lyman. Be informed then make the choice for you and your
family.
Food politics aside, I’m interested in my and my families health
and well being, and I’m not interested in supporting an industry
that doesn’t care about the quality of their products or whether
those products are potentially dangerous or even deadly.
What You Can Do to Avoid Dangerous Meat
Buy all your meat from the local butcher. He gets the animals
from local farmers, and can tell you which Farms, if you ask.
Buy all your meat from local stores that certify it is grain fed.
Visit sites such as EatWild.com
Cut back on your consumption of all meat in general, substituting
beans for instance for protein.
Eat a “special occasion” steak at the best restaurants such as
Ruth Chris’ Steak House. Now that’s a steak!
More Info on Mad Cow and it’s Variant CJD
MadCow.org: Everything you ever wanted to know about Mad Cow.
Human BSE Foundation: An organization for those with CJD (the
human variant of Mad Cow)
Mad Cow Facts
You don’t have to be a fanatic, just be informed and then make
the best choices you can for yourself and your family.
