January 4, 2004 The Daily Camera editorial

That's certainly the message we've gotten from the Bush administration since a single Holstein (actually a dairy breed) in Washington state tested positive for the disease, as reported on Dec. 24.

Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman praised her department for a "swift and effective" response, and she and others have stampeded to assure Americans that there is no risk to their health. They've noisily criticized nations that banned the import of U.S. beef in recent days.

But that response has more to do with commerce and coddling agribusiness than it does concern for the safety of the meat we eat. And while there's no reason for carnivores to panic, it's past time the United States stopped winking at practices that made BSE all but inevitable (and these sins belong both to Republican and Democratic administrations).

Why? Because a single case of BSE in the United States could lead inspectors to uncover an estimated 299,000 more cases over the ensuing decade - even if "swift and effective" steps were taken. So says a 1997 Food and Drug Administration memo revealed in "Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?" by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton.

BCE is largely due to the repulsive feeding of ground-up cattle and sheep to livestock. Veneman and others claim the practice has been banned, but they are fudging: Such "animal protein" still is fed to calves on a routine basis, and the disease can lie dormant for many years.

Anybody counting on the FDA to save us doesn't understand the power of the meat industry, which has lobbied furiously for years to undermine inspections (too costly, you know).

The late Bill Lehman, who "inspected" Canadian beef until his public revelations (he found pus-filled abscesses, bacterial slime, feces, tumors, and more goodies) led to forced retirement, told journalist James Ridgeway his job was a joke. Lehman seldom was able to do more than a cursory inspection, or allowed to open boxes of meat or enter trucks. He once certified 80,000 pounds of meat in just 45 seconds. In Asia and Europe many governments test animals for BSE before the meat can go to market; not so in the United States.

And while Veneman and Co. have scolded other nations for "overreacting," the United States promptly banned imports of Canadian beef when a single infected animal was discovered earlier this year, and did the same for British and European meat a few years ago. (Would you like a side of hypocrisy with that, sir?)

Mad cow disease is not, so far, a widespread threat to human health. But the human form of the disease has caused the hideous deaths of 130 Britons, and BSE has resulted in the slaughter of millions of healthy animals for strictly economic reasons.

Americans needn't feel they are taking their lives in their hands when ordering a Whopper just yet. But it would be wise to consider the first red, white and blue case of BSE as a clarion call to consider the roots of the problem. This disease is all but manmade, the result of cruelly "efficient" factory farming and the nature-twisting practice of turning herbivores into cannibals.

As for action, the United States should ban - outright - the feeding of animal offal to sheep and cattle. And Congress should stand up to the meat industry and create an inspection regime that isn't a fraud.

Many meat-loving Americans dismiss the notion of treating farm animals humanely - and according to nature's wisdom - as silly and sentimental. But as BSE shows, humanity's hubris has the potential to land right on our dinner plates.