ALLIANCE FOR
CITIZENS RIGHTS 
ALLIANCE FOR
CITIZENS RIGHTS
"SMART COW" DISEASE
by Ken Freeman
Recently we had a case of mad cow disease come into America from Canada. This caused a big meat recall in the North West and a media blitz about this incident. These newspaper articles did a good job of frightening readers but not a very good job of getting out the facts.
But those in the news media are not the only ones operating without the facts and wreaking havoc by spreading miss-information. Politicians eager to pander public support have come forward with knee-jerk draconian measures that will increase the danger from infectious diseases, not alleviate it. Rather than fund and enforce very important, well thought-out regulations that have already been passed, Washington will simply pass more laws.
Our government in Washington intends to save us from "mad cows" by simply turning them all into "smart cows." They have proposed putting a computer identification chip called a "smart chip" behind the ears of 97 million (yes, that's right, 97,000,000) head of U.S. cattle and actually reducing the monitoring and restrictions on potentially diseased imported cattle. This is, in the opinion of almost everyone except the government, a ridiculous, expensive and ineffective proposal. Worse still, it undoes very effective remedies under "Country Of Origin Labeling" that were about to be implemented.
According to R-CALF USA, the largest association representing cattle ranchers, the truth is that what we have come to know as "mad cow disease" is actually a sheep disease named "scabies". The only way to contract this so called "mad cow disease" is to consume the infected brain or spinal column tissue of a sick animal.
First of all you should know that foreign raised cattle have historically been fed differently from our U.S. cattle. Both European and Canadian cattle, especially dairy cattle, have for generations been fed sheep by-products, including brain tissue imported from the former colonies of Australia and New Zealand as an extremely cheap source of protein and calcium. This practice, many knowledgeable sources believe, was the source of infection. You and your family have basically zero chance of getting mad cow disease by eating U.S. grown beef.
The United States has the safest, best and healthiest food produced anywhere in the world. We have taken huge steps and spent billions of dollars to make sure our domestic food supply is safe. In fact, the United States has not allowed the feeding of brain or spinal tissue to any of our cattle for over fourteen years, and under even more stringent protective regulations passed seven years ago, the U.S. has not allowed the feeding of "any tissue" from ruminants (cattle, sheep goats etc.) to any other ruminant. Since the maximum incubation period for mad cow disease is five to six years, our U.S. raised cattle should be completely free of this disease. (Note: In 1997 the Canadians outlawed feeding animal protein as well. This incident involved a seven-year-old dairy cow, which was infected as a young calf, before the ban went into effect.)
American cattle are fed under a totally different program from the Europeans. Our cattle are raised on grass until yearlings and then fed mostly grain along with some vegetable protein, in the form of cottonseed or soybean meal, until slaughtered. In America we have not used animal by-products for many years. It is against the law to do so. This is not true for beef grown in other parts of the world. Some foreign cultures still use animal by-products as well as eating the brains of cattle and sheep. The British love "brains and eggs." Mexican immigrants, right here in Alabama, eat "goat brain tacos," I am told.
American cattlemen and others concerned about the threat of importing diseases into our clean herds were already working on an excellent program of prevention and control before this Canadian mad cow scare occurred. They had designed these protective measures and Congress had passed them into law but they had not as yet been funded. This program was called "COOL" which stands for "Country Of Origin Labeling". Cattlemen and consumer groups both strongly supported COOL because it protected the American beef cattle population and at the same time allowed consumers to know where the products they eat come from.
Had COOL been implemented, we would not have had foreign cattle mixed with our clean U.S. cattle. Imported cattle and beef products would have been identified on entry, kept separate, and labeled as such in the grocery stores; that way we would have known exactly where ALL the herd-mates to this sick animal were and their meat would never have been mixed with our American raised beef. With COOL, American consumers would also know where the beef they were buying came from. If they wanted high quality, safe and tasty beef, they could buy US beef, which would be labeled as such. It costs American cattlemen more to produce this superior beef, but if consumers were willing to pay for extra quality and safety then they could do so. If the consumer wanted cheaper but tougher cuts of beef, say from Argentina or Brazil, and absolute safety was not an issue with them, then they could buy foreign products. With COOL, the end purchaser would be able to make an informed selection. Since the percentage of imported live stock is only a small fraction of our domestic supply this would be relatively simple. It is estimated by R-CALF that this extra protection would cost the American consumer only one tenth of one cent per pound.
But for "big government folks" this was obviously too cheap, effective and simple to implement. "No, no, no," the bureaucrats said, "Forget COOL." They want to abandon COOL in favor of their "Cow Chip" program. This program would be expensive and would be totally worthless, since our cattle are not the ones with the diseases. This program would do nothing to prevent bringing disease into America.
What this "cow chip" program would do is require the creation of another huge government bureaucracy and the hiring of many more government employees. It would grow the government and consume tax dollars. It would also play into the hands of "radical environmental groups" and " Globalists" who see every disaster as an opportunity to confiscate more land and place it under United Nations control.
This is a disaster in the making. If an infected animal were to show up on one ranch, then not only would that herd be liquidated but all of his neighbor's herds would also have to be destroyed. This would ultimately bankrupt many ranchers and enable the government and environmental groups to purchase ranch properties cheaply at foreclosure sales. This "cow chip program" would mainly be used to track U.S. cattle infected by foreign imports, which our government had not bothered to control, and drive cattlemen off the land.
These bureaucrats and environmentalist, also have powerful allies within "Corporate America." Foremost among opponents of COOL are several huge meat packers and food marketers, which are also major contributors to political parties. These profit driven "global businesses" have put immense pressure on the Department of Agriculture to de-fund the COOL program. They have good reason to resist COOL … BIG MONEY. The policy, as it is practiced now, allows imported ground beef to be mixed with just enough of our high quality U.S. beef to make it palatable and then to foist it on the American consumer as U.S. beef. The American consumer assumes that these products have all the protections and quality that reputable American cattle producers have worked so hard and spent so many billions of dollars to develop. Without COOL these big beef packing companies can keep making huge profits on imported beef at the expense of both cattlemen and consumers.
"The Secretary Of Agriculture," Ann Veneman recently testified against funding COOL before a United States Senate Committee. She advocated waiting two full years before funding this essential program. (Perhaps she figured, like others in the Bush administration, that in two years we wouldn't have any borders.). She got her way. The COOL program went un-funded. Cattle producers and consumer groups are trying to get funding restored.
At this same hearing, Secretary Veneman stated that she opposed "U.S." labeling of beef products but that "North American Labeling" would be acceptable. (How would "North American Labeling" protect us from Canadian diseases, much less from the many diseases prevalent in Mexico?) The Bush administration is apparently more interested in NAFTA, removing borders, globalization of businesses and fulfilling United Nations mandates than it is in protecting the livelihoods of American cattlemen and the safety of American consumers.
For now, our domestic cattle herds are safe but it appears that our national leaders have already been infected with some brain wasting disease. We need fewer smart chips and more statesmen with common sense. Please contact your Congressmen, Senators and local public officials and ask them to support funding for COOL and also to help stop this ridiculous "cow chip program."
Kenneth Freeman
Chairman, Alliance For Citizens Rights
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