WASHINGTON (AP) – The government on Saturday permanently banned the slaughter of cows too sick or weak to stand on their own, seeking to further minimize the chance that mad cow disease could enter the food supply. The Agriculture Department proposed the ban last year after the biggest beef recall in U.S. history. The recall involved a Chino, Calif., slaughterhouse and “downer” cows. The Obama administration finalized the ban on Saturday. “As part of our commitment to public health, our Agriculture Department is closing a loophole in the system to ensure that diseased cows don’t find their way into the food supply,” President Barack Obama said in his weekly radio and video address.
Those kind of cows pose a higher risk of having mad cow disease. They also susceptible to infections from bacteria that cause food poisoning, such as E. coli, because the animals wallow in feces. The recall also raised concerns about the treatment of cattle and came after an investigator for the Humane Society of the United States videotaped workers abusing downer cows to force them to slaughter. A partial ban on downer cows was in place; it resulted from the nation’s first case of mad cow disease, in 2003.
Obama called the country’s food inspection system “a hazard to public health,” citing outbreaks of deadly food poisoning in peanuts this year, peppers and possibly tomatoes last year and spinach in 2006. He named his candidates for the top jobs at the Food and Drug Administration, which together with the Agriculture Department is responsible for much of the government’s food inspection.
This should have been done many years ago. I only hope Obama makes a wiser choice for the FDA than he has with his other appointments, I promise not to hold my breath.
I can hear the cows out there now, “hey, hey, motherfucker I was just resting!”
More big government crock.. why should anyone tell me what I would like to eat or not? What if the cows evolve into learning that if they sit – they live longer? What about the effects on poor farmers? Where’s personal responsibility on part of the consumers??
#2. What the hell are you “beefing” about?
Great, next step is to make “upper” cows illegal too. When will this crazy drug war end?
Unless there are a lot more inspecters out there than we now have I don’t expect much to change. Right now it’s like putting one border guard on the Mexican border and expecting that one person to stop the drug trade.
Not going to happen.
Oh man, just give them some Valium and Prozac. They’ll feel better
Good. We finally restored an FDA that again oversees the integrity of our food supply.
The Department of Agriculture has an inherent conflict of interest between inspecting food and promoting production of food. The inspection function needs to be removed from Agriculture and placed into an independent agency whose mission is food safety, like the FDA.
The same situation existed when the regulation of nuclear power was removed from the old Atomic Energy Commission, who also had as its mission the PROMOTION of nuclear power. That led to the formation of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Is that a Jersey or Monsanto cow?
They’ve also banned organic food. Or at least are very close to it.
It’s called the Food Safety Modernization Act.
They can use the downer cows for animal feed.
#8 rogparish
Your comments are correct, and the theory that explains it is called “Capture”.
Capture – In public choice theory and political science, capture is said to occur when bureaucrats or politicians, who are supposed be acting in the public interest, end up acting systematically to favor particular vested interests. The theory of capture is associated with the Nobel laureate economist George Stigler, one of its main developers.
from Wikipedia
—————
In plain language – it is business buying the government.
For too long we have had “follow the money” instead of “we the people”.
“I only hope Obama makes a wiser choice for the FDA than he has with his other appointments, I promise not to hold my breath.”
Damn! He’s been President for 2 months and you are second guessing every breath he takes. Where the F***k were you for the last 8 years??!!
You kept your damn mouth shut because:
– you were either a “true believer”
– you were afraid of being called a traitor, or
– you thought you’d get arrested and sent to Guantanamo.
President Obama and our country have immense challenges and he’s doing a great job with nothing but roadblocks from the so called “loyal opposition”.
So STFU!
#14. I disagree. We should’ve been as critical of the previous administration as we were and we shouldn’t stop being critical just because the new guy is new.
The facts are that the President has made a lot of blunders in his appointees. Dvorak’s “No Agenda” shows even more mistakes/lies about the new executive branch than the other media does. So, to have a Dvorak blogger be cynical of an Obama pick is one of the more likely and more logical things to have happen.
#14.
You kept your damn mouth shut because:
– you were either a “true believer”
– you were afraid of being called a traitor, or
– you thought you’d get arrested and sent to Guantanamo.
Ha, ha. You must be new to the blog. Welcome. You can click on my name above, go back in time and educate yourself.
#16, McCullough,
Ya, you should be critical !!!
Uummm, what?
Never mind.
*
Getting serious, I have faith that Obama’s choices to lead oversight agencies will be far better than the previous Administration. They would have a hard time being worse.
Udderly rediculous!
#17. Well it never fails. When I criticized Bush, I’m a leftie, criticize Obama, and I’m a right wing-nut.
Whatever. You gotta love hard core left/right true believers.
#19, McCullough,
Then you know you’re doing something right.
#13 & 8 -more or less says it all.
—
um.. this is just a sham.. they are only addressing the symptoms and not the CAUSE.
this is done so they look good in the eyes of the un-informed public…and the industial scale agrobiz monopoly gets to continue it’s unscrupulous practices (and stuff money in the right “holes”)
the problem is what they are feeding the livestock..madcow, stems from feeding livestock the brains and neural tissue
(spinal cord etc) from compromised animals.
downers…who knows. probably due to use/overuse of rBGH and antibiotics. GMO feed
has been proven in studies done outside the US
to cause all sorts of defects, many which are more pronounced in second and esp third generations. -cloned animals are not helping the issues much either.
anyway..the feed is the root problem. any legislation that does not address the feed issue just proves the regulators are still taking money from the “vested interests” and
don’t give a rat’s ass about public health
or the health of the livestock. (one and the same?)
madcow is not an issue. just makes for great sound bites.
the fact that most of the higher-ups in the FDA used to work or lobby for a biotech/ag companies says it all.
that obama selected tom vilsack as secretary of agriculture.. -a biotech-gmo/industrial
farming poster child, just proves it’s business as usual on capitol hill.
meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
change you can believe in. (?)
::yawn::
-s
Uh, people, this isn’t rocket science. A cow that can’t stand up is most likely sick. You want to eat beef from a sick cow? Not me.
Oh! Oh! I have an idea! We should just let those nice cattlemen do whatever they want without any of that burdensome government regulation! After all, it worked so well with those nice Wall Street men, didn’t it?
clues for the clueless, 5¢
what a putz.. it’s a powergrab by agrobiz and the feds, you brainwashed xxxx.. this is a springboard action to help foster support for Bill: H.R. 875 -and that bill is leading to the UN’s Codex Alimentarius crap (effective dec 31,09)
the bill’s sponsor’s husband works for Monsanto
-see how that works??????????
(my god, if i had a nickel for every gullible
fool i run across..)
go here for a snippet of the tip of the iceburg
on HR875. it outlines some of the points for those who have trouble thinking.
Federal Takeover of Food Regulation in H.R. 875
http://naturalnews.com/025824.html
HR875 BILL: http://govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-875
open your eyes.
(and turn off your tv)
-s
This might give them a incentive to treat the cows better during transport.
As soon as it costs them money…
/me lights a match…
-s