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Lee Jae-Won / Reuters
A shopper picks up Australian beef at a Lotte Mart store in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday. Lotte Mart was one of two major South Korean retailers to halt sales of U.S. beef.
SEOUL, South Korea -- Two major South Korean retailers suspended sales of U.S. beef Wednesday following the discovery of mad cow disease in a U.S. dairy cow. Reaction elsewhere in Asia was muted with Japan saying there's no reason to restrict imports.
South Korea's No. 2 and No. 3 supermarket chains, Home Plus and Lotte Mart, said they have "temporarily" halted sales of U.S. beef to calm worries among South Koreans.
"We stopped sales from today," said Chung Won-hun, a Lotte Mart spokesman. "Not that there were any quality issues in the meat but because consumers were worried."
South Korea is the world's fourth-largest importer of U.S. beef, buying 107,000 tons of the meat worth $563 million in 2011.
California mad cow 'just a random mutation'
The new case of mad cow disease is the first in the U.S. since 2006. It was discovered in a dairy cow in California, but health authorities said Tuesday the animal was never a threat to the nation's food supply.
Reuters reported that the first U.S. mad cow case, which was identified in 2003, caused a $3 billion drop in exports. It took until 2011 before those exports fully recovered.
The U.S. government has confirmed the first case of mad cow disease in six years, but the government is stressing there is no threat to human health. NBC's Robert Bazell reports.
Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is fatal to cows and can cause a deadly human brain disease in people who eat tainted beef. U.S. authorities said the dead California cow has what scientists call an atypical case of BSE, meaning that a random mutation in the animal rather than infected cattle feed was the cause.
Carcass quarantined
The infected cow, the fourth ever discovered in the U.S., was found as part of an Agriculture Department surveillance program that tests about 40,000 cows a year for the disease.
USDA confirms 4th mad cow case in US
The USDA is still tracing the exact life of the infected animal, and the carcass of the cow is under quarantine and will be destroyed.
The cow was found at a rendering plant, which processes diseased or sick animals into mainly non-edible products for use in things like soap or glue.
Gosia Wozniacka / AP
The latest U.S. mad cow case is centered on the Baker Commodities transfer station in Hanford, Calif.
First discovered in Britain in 1986, the disease has killed more than 150 people and 184,000 cows globally, mainly in Britain and Europe, but strict controls have tempered its spread. The first U.S. case was found in late 2003 in an animal imported from Canada, followed by two more in 2005 and 2006. Two of those cases were also "atypical".
The news spread quickly in South Korea, which imposed a ban on U.S. beef in 2003 along with China and other countries because of mad cow disease concerns. Seoul's resumption of U.S. beef imports in 2008 sparked daily candlelight vigils and street protests for several months as many South Koreans still regarded the meat as a public health risk.
South Korea imports U.S. beef from cows less than 30 months old and there is no direct link between U.S. beef imported into South Korea and the infected animal, the country's agriculture ministry said in a statement. The infected U.S. cow was older than 30 months.
Public concern
But the ministry decided to step up inspections of U.S. beef and request detailed information on the case from the United States — initial measures to appease public concern while avoiding possible trade conflicts.
"We are still reviewing whether we will stop quarantine inspections," Chang Jae-hong, deputy director of the ministry's quarantine policy division, told The Associated Press by telephone.
Halting quarantine inspections would prevent U.S. beef from being delivered to stores as it couldn't clear customs.
At a Home Plus store in southwestern Seoul, some shoppers said they were not worried about U.S. beef as long as officials had said there were no health risks.
But others criticized the U.S. government as "arrogant" and "inconsiderate" in asserting that the discovery of an infected cow would have no impact on its meat exports.
"I won't eat meat from the countries where mad cow disease was found," said Kim Woo-sig, a self employed 47-year-old.
In Japan, officials said the country's import policy was unchanged.
'No need for change'
Japan, the world's third-largest consumer of U.S. beef and veal, restricts its imports of U.S. beef to cows of 20 months or younger.
"There is no need for change," in Japan's import rules, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters.
But the latest mad cow case may jeopardize moves to expand American beef sales in Taiwan, where the government recently sparked protests by allowing sales of U.S. beef containing ractopamine, a growth additive.
Taiwan's legislature on Wednesday indefinitely postponed a planned discussion on U.S. beef imports. It is likely the government engineered the delay, fearing that the opposition would stoke sentiment against U.S. beef.
There was no immediate response from China's government. Beijing no longer has an outright ban on U.S. beef but exporters have been unable to overcome continued barriers involving inspection of the meat.
The news comes at a time of booming beef exports, with total shipments reaching a record last year thanks to expanding markets in countries like Russia and Canada, according to Commerce Department data.
But exports to Japan, Mexico and South Korea, which bought more than 80 percent of U.S. beef and veal exports in 2003, have yet to match their earlier peaks, with many of them maintaining certain restrictions that may help temper any fallout.
Mexico, which buys more U.S. beef than any other country, said it has no plans to halt imports and that it would maintain the same regimen of inspections for trade across the border.
Vietnam, which suspended U.S. beef imports between December 2003 and September 2011, also said it had not changed its policy on U.S. beef in response to the latest news.
It has also been a difficult period in the domestic market, with firms still reeling from fallout over a ground beef filler that critics called "pink slime", which was pulled from grocery store shelves and forced one producer to idle several factories and another to file for bankruptcy.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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A few years ago, Creekstone Beek wanted to test all carcasses for Mad cow and the USDA said NO!!!
BEWARE of any program that the USDA wants to put in place to "stop" mad cow disease...it will not work and only allow more cases and other food safety problems... Basically this program will put draconian controls (registering with the govt your land and animals, microchipping and reporting all movements to the govt) on those who are not involved in raising beef, such as those who own horses, pet pot belly pigs, and other animals and very little controls on those who raise factory farmed meats and allow more cattle to come in unchecked from Mexico and S. America.
google Dollarhite rabbits, mad sheep and raw milk raids and have your eyes opened to the brown shirt tactics of thr USDA ( in the pocket of big ag facory farms) --- hell bent on harrassing citizens and legislating away our freedoms to choose our foods in the name of so called food safety. See also nonais dot org for more info on a USDA program that will put more govt surveillance on those who own even one horse, cow, pig,
chicken etc than on illegals, drug dealers or child abusers.
Well folks this is only the beginning. The US Gov is in the process of building a new complex in the heart of Kansas to move the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. A head of Plum Island even admitted that most lab techs inhale Foot and Mouth and become carriers for this disease. If one of the techs even visit a farm, zoo, circus, come in contact with an animal that can we infected or anything similar then we are looking at a major outbreak. These lab techs security not to do these things are on the "honor system" Never mind should the lab become compromised say due to a tornado or even just a power failure. What in the heck is wrong with the US gov? Moving Plum Island Animal Disease Center(along with Bio engineering warfare insects) to the newly built Us National Bio and Agro Defense Facility in the heart of cattle country. These people are idiots or have a plan for you and I. If you don't believe me just google Plum Island move to Kansas, while you are at it also look deep into what they really work at. Plum Island was started by Erich Traub who a lead Nazi Bio Warfare scientist for Hilter and brought to the US under Operation Paperclip. Traub mainly worked with mosquitos and ticks(insects) and look what happened-Lyme Disease started in Lyme, CT just a few water miles away from Plum Island. The tick found was also a tick native to Texas and never before found in the northeast due to climate.
Mad cow comes from feeding infected cattle to non infected cattle. They don't cannibalize, but they do use those cattle to make feed for cows, so maybe the magic bullet to avoid would be QUIT FEEDING ANIMAL MEAT TO ANIMALS, dumb@sses in the USDA and FDA.
Want to be safe? Quit eating beef. It is not good for you anyway.
I agree, Trust2112.
Let cows eat what they were born to eat.
We already are unable to export our beef to many areas of the world because of the bizarre things we feed/inject them.
Besides, free range beef tastes better anyway. IMHO.
You forgot to mention the USDA being the govt bully boys for Monsanto. The USDA is full of Monsanto former employees and if Monsanto wants some dirty work done like harassing farmers for using the practice of seed savings, Monsanto will sic the USDA on them for some phoney reason.
Monsanto and Bayer are two companies whose products are slowing killing us either with GM foods the bees don't recognize or antibiotics that are making SuperBugs that are resistant to antibiotics.
Just fyi, the usda and the fda passed a ruminant feed ban in 1997. In layman's terms, this means you can't feed cattle remains to other cattle.
Also, atypical BSE (mad cow disease) is a random genetic mutation and does not come from ingesting feed. Although the BSE could be spread by another cow eating that one.
So Max, what should one eat? Crap(e-coli) infected fruit and veggies? I actually would rather eat wild meat, deer, elk, moose, brid-pheasnt, grouse, wild turkey,duck, etc but deer and birds are about the only thing these days that can be hunted which is cheap enough. Actually you can shoot a bison for a pretty reasonable price these days also, elk and moose if you live in the right state and can accumulate enough points
Nevermind that Monsato is pattening all hybrid seeds. Do a heavy metal test on your soil and I bet you will find high levels or aluminum and Boron. Monsato has even developed seeds with a resistance to aluminum along with making these seeds so they will not germinate after a year or two requiring farmers to keep buying from them. Oh yeah these contrails are just a conspiracy and people are nuts, no the ones that are nuts are the Anti-Conspricay Nuts, the scientists have even admitted to the spraying, oh yeah they say it's to help with global warming. Oh but wait Global warming is real...effing nuts
fishman - I have nothing against people who hunt and fish to eat, especially if they do it with respect for the lives they take in order to live. Imo however, industrial beef production is an abomination producing unhealthy product. I'm a vegetarian who grows a lot of my own food and I battle critters all the time. There has to be a balance in the environment, and predation (hunting) by humans can be an important part of this balance.
Fishman: Those suicide genes were shutdown by the US courts. Thankfully. But I think Monsanto is trying to sell off the patents now, so it could pop up by some other corporation later.
However, Monsanto's Round Up Ready crops and all the legal bullying they do with that stuff: someone needs to seriously get that abomination of a company shut down.
I won't comment on the global warming part of what you said, as I think we'll begin to really disagree on that. haha
Max: I agree but to an extent. I think livestock farming is okay but not to the extent that we do it today. I totally agree with the concept that you can feed far more people with an acre of wheat than you can with an acre of grazing cattle.
If you are even going to say that contrails/chemtrails are just vapor, moisture, ice from these plans then please tell me how they even show up covering the sky on radar. I'm talking whole counties and more/larger(states). Tell me why soil samples of where fertilizer was not used shows 69,000 times the normal levels of aluminum and high levels of barium. I apologize about mistake in other post saying boron(ment barium).
Watch this
youtube.com/watch?v=NFpLW_KkQEo
fishman-1985517, the main reason why e coli became a concern on vegetable crops is because some cities have decided that it is cost-effective to sell their sewage to corporate farms.
fishman, e coli infected fruits and veggies happen when contaminated dead animals or their feces contaminate a fruit or vegetable.
If these animals, that nature intended to eat grass, weren't fed things like corn (which they can't digest properly) and other things there would be no or minimal dangerous e coli.
Observer 1 I respect that, but that is what made this country great, us being able to voice our opinion. I do doubt the global warming scam, because simply that's what it is. It is not Global Warming, it is Climate Change. Climate Change has happened through the life of the earth and it will happen again. Global Warming is a scare tactic brought about by Rothschild, Strong and their global elite clique. How is it that Rothschild's bank will in charge of the carbon credit fund? It used to be that if you had excess solar or wind generated power you could sell it back to the power company. Now the power company will take it and give you carbon credits which then get delt through a few people. They have or want to make illegal to sell these credits directly to a company. Basically you get a wooden nickel for your excess power. Just follow the money
It has already been proven and the gov. has even admitted to weather manipulation, geoengineering, aspects of mind control. Check out Dr. Nick Begich Angels Still Don't Play This Harp along with his other books. I know many folks have trouble reading so I posted a link to his video but I still don't expect many to watch it as they just can't be bothered by the truth or where we are headed. I would list Dr. Begich's creditials but I don't want to be typing all day
youtube.com/watch?v=74b-gA9qq3o
Q. Why is it called "mad cow" ?
A. Because "PMS" was already taken.
oops- I meant creekstone BEEF---i was in a hurry because this issue means a lot to my freedoms or the loss of them through the USDA wanting to regulate all those who own animals on a private level for the benefit of corporate ag...basically it is like making someone take medicine they do not need in order that someone else can say they are cured and healthy.
So, let's see how long "Temporary" lasts in the South Korean vernacular. You cannot blame them for the desire to protect their citizenry but there is a limit to how long it lasts past the testing phase. They held on too long the last time something like this happened and hurt OUR bottom line in trade.
(p)rophecy
Zach Jacoby
pray safe keepings for my friends in south korea, God will love you this evening as he is one with the spirit and the souls that call upon his name.
at once and as for forever,
we will never be the same but we will remain as the unchanged.
9 hours ago ·
japan, mexico, vietnam...so very different in culture...but remain...~the unchanged!
if there was another man woman or child on earth that could do this ........i'd like to meet them~ *-_*
so far...i feel i don't exist ...because this is impossible...
so impossible that i do not think it registers in peoples minds...meaning that i am possibly a spirit caught between two world who thinks he is a human being...a prophet even~ in the 21st century
...it is a hard life at times...caught between two world...like...being at a train station...and waiting...~where is my train? IT'S LATE! I WANNA GET ....outta here....
You need to back off on the beef...or caffeine, one.
Yowza... how colorful.
btw, the Japanese (who are vigilant when buying US beef because they do not want to risk mad cow) aren't they the ones that eat that deadly pufferfish as a delicacy and risk an instant and painful death if not prepared correctly (and several have died from eating it) ????
True, but the pufferfish supposedly produces a mild inebriation when eaten. (No, I have not yet tried it.)
Same effects from Sea Robins here in the USA; just a small portion of the back can be eaten without risking poisoning. Great Chum though, the fish don't seem to mind it.
fugu actually isn't all that bad.
that being said, the tetrodotoxin in the pufferfish screws with voltage gated sodium channels in nerve cells. this can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 6 hours before you, let's just say, reach equilibrium with your surroundings. the chef dealing with the fish is required to be trained in dealing with it and removing the TTX containing tissue before it can be served.
BSE has no symptoms the same day you eat prion contaminated meat. they take years or decades to proliferate. by then you might have a hard time remembering things, maybe some paralysis or clumsiness, but really you've got holes in your brain that've been growing for years. that cow that's walking fine today but might be in the early stages of BSE. it's still walking fine tomorrow, so into the grinder it goes. that's why mad cow gets people scared. it takes years to manifest, there's no cure for prion diseases, and you end up with holes slowly carving out chunks of your brain.
go VEGAN, they never had a Mad Turnip....
Nore do they have the joy of eating a nice thick juicy steak. You enjoy your turnip and I'll enjoy my steak even if it makes me mad.
Nope, just E coli...
Never heard about those killer cantaloupes I guess..........!
Or dirty fence jumpers who crap irght next to the plant the are about to pick then wipe their arse with the leaves and pick the fruit/veg with their crappy fingers. These are then the same ones who also work in the processing plant
e coli in fruits and veggies is due to contact of infected animal feces (which they wouldn't have if fed grass like nature intended) or human sewage as fertilizer.
BTW, I love meat, just hate the way that our entire food supply is contaminated and infected due to factory farming. It's all about the food corps profits and bottom lines, and they could care less about the citizens and their health.
Maybe beef prices will come down at home now. Never has been a case of "mad cow" in beef steers in US, only dairy cows. Buy quality beef and don't fall for the sensationalism, or go vegan and leave the beef to those that can appreciate it.
You'd never know because the USA only tests a tiny percentage.
I hope so as the prices have been going through the roof. I had someone try and tell me that was not so, they commented that the price only went up a bit over the years at our local market. Problem is that this and other markets are now selling select grade(low ones at that/standard grade) instead of Choice and forget about finding a true Prime Cut at the store. Even these jerkoffs that drive around in trucks selling vacuum sealed beef are screwing people. I had one guy show me some beef saying look at this beatiful piece of beef, no fat/ nice and clean. I then went to my frezer and pulled out a steak and showed him how good beef should look. Good beef should have fat, it's called marbling and is what gives the steak flavor. The best way to buy your beef and I still try and get all mine this way is to buy it through someone local and buy a side/half cow. Most will butcher and package for you or have someone that will. The butchering is usually done on a flat rate/scale an it depends on how you want it broken down and packaged. I get great quality beef for well below the store price. I sent my guy so much business he was even able to purchase a blast freezer and vacuum seals my meat for no extra charge. I also get my pig/pork through his brother and he has the best bacon ever. Check around as there may be one near you, you also get to see how the beef is raised and fed. Nothing like looking into the eyes of your dinner, even better if you give em a name---only kidding
Never know what????No one in the US has ever gotten the human form of Madcow from eating American beef. The few reported cases have been linked to European or Saudi beef. Say what you will about the USDA but they have been diligent in preventing MC....period. Please show me where and when was there anything but a few individual cases of infected dairy cows here since the epidemic in Europe? If you can, I'll jump on the bandwagon.
You are spot on fishman!!! Kudos.
You are correct about the mad cow DW, but you are wrong about the USDA and FDA being diligent in anything but protecting the big food corporations out of hot water.
If they were so diligent e coli wouldn't be the issue it is here. If they were diligent, they wouldn't allow your meat to sprayed with ammonia before packaging. The list of their corruption and lack of concern for public health and safety is long.
Vegetarian and vegan diets are not the answer as they require too much pressure on the land and without animal based fertilizers we are limited to petroleum based ammonium nitrate. The answer is better farming practices that don't include feeding cows like pigs, and don't feed them any animal by products. Modern farming practices (Agribusiness) is the scourge of the earth. If at all possible, raise your food or buy your food from someone you know and you trust.
BTW, the average price South Korea pays for U.S. beef is about $2.60 a pound. That's pitiful. This is the problem, when there is no margin for a respectable profit, you should expect less than healthy farming practices. Until we start valuing food more than entertainment and technology we can expect to eat poorly and the environment to suffer.
Still, it should not go without mentioning that if mankind could convert to a vegetarian diet, it might be looking at the 'sunlight at the end of the tunnel' instead of 'the train light at the end of the tunnel'. And I still eat meat, so please do not respond about that.
Great, thank you South Korea, now Japan and others can follow suit so we can lower beef prices here. I know it's not great for the ranchers, but I need my brisket fix too you know. My smoker has been idle for too long.
If you want cheaper beef go to that local rancher and have him or her feed a steer for you. Your cost would be greatly reduced. You could purchase a 1300 lb steer that would yield roughly 800 lbs for only $1700. That would give you an average of $2.12/lb. You could get any steak cut, roast, ground beef, and brisket for that price. You would have to pay processing cost (cost of your local butcher to cut, smoke, freeze, and age your meat) on top of that, but the cost of that depends on your cut. How rude of you to say that you want lower beef prices where hard blue collar workers are struggling to make ends meet. You want lower prices of beef for you own sake, selfish?
If you want cheap beef go buy it from Mexico, South America, & other foreign countries where USDA has NO control on ow they are raised. Then you could get BSE, E. coli, & other diseases at a higher percentage. Did you know ranchers in S. America are STILL feeding animal byproducts to cattle which greatly increases the chance of disease like E.coli and BSE?
So....do you want quality from American raised beef or quantity from imports?
No problem, raise you own beef. Ya right!
What...they just now diagnosing rosie o'donnell?
You know...she is a mad cow already...get it now?
I love beef as much as the next guy but the USDA is essential, as you can see. All it would take is one of these sick cows ground into hamburger and contaminating many tons of meat and making it to the dinner table... how would you like to watch your kids flop around spastically before they die an agonizing death..
ps mitt romney is a brainless wishy washy idiot who will kiss your ass and SAY ANYTHING to get elected.. Even promise to shut down many important govt. agencys.
You obviously have no idea how or what Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease is or how it works. Your child would most likely show no signs for a very long time. Then they would get headaches that slowly become more frequent, last longer, and hurt more. Then they would exhibit signs similar to alzheimers. Becoming forgetful and having mild dementia. After that the disease progresses rapidly causing further mental issues before progressing to physical incapacities. The eventual mechanism of death is usually a sudden loss of the ability to control breathing, heart rhythm, and to process food and liquids. Also the immune system suffers due to the loss of reflexes such as coughing which would normally expel pathogens.
The entire process usually takes 6 months to a year after the initial onset of symptoms. Some people have been known to make it two or more years (<15%) while some die in a few weeks. It's not really 'agonizing' except for the families as the individual is completely lost mentally by the time the worst symptoms appear. For all intensive purposes they are dead, we just don't have the legal ability to end it for them.
There are major changes that need to occur in the US and the way we grow and consume food. Until a major outbreak of a chemical or biological nature happens, we will see nothing. Even then I highly doubt there will be any changes that matter.
It cannot be assumed that it is painless. Many with any neurological problem, have varied periods of forgetfullness, but at the times that they do remember, it is tragic.
Mad cow disease is serious but so is something called "Self Serving Disease" which severely affects politicians. Some of it's symptoms are truth twisting, insider trading, pork barreling, dysfunctional fiscal responsibility, lobbyist controlled and just plain selfish arrogant jerks.
It takes many years for mad cow to presnt in humans, many are walking around with it and dont know it. It can be confused with alzhiemers disease . Go to mad cow underground, its very frightening
Many years? Hmm... not quite. By the way, it's called Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease in humans, or prion disease.
It's not a virus or bacteria. It doesn't lie dormant like those do. It's a prion - which is a protein. We have these proteins in our body naturally. The difference is that these proteins (prions) are folded wrong. The cause other proteins to fold and build incorrectly. From the moment it enters your body the damage has already started. Since you're constantly replacing proteins in your body it doesn't take long for the mis-folded prions to accumulate.
This isn't a 'years' type waiting game. Sure, it could take 1 - 2 years if the disease progresses slowly but don't be misinformed into thinking that a 1 year old isn't going to shows symptoms until they're 10. Yes, it can be confused with other diseases but once the symptoms start to appear - especially alzheimers dementia - the patient has only 6 months to a year to live. No confusion there.
Where is PEDA ??
The disease should not be " mad cow".
How degrading!!
It should be " angry bovine ".
Any of the bovid family of animals can get what is antidotelly called 'mad cow' disease.
One thing that struck me right off was that S Korea is our 4th largest importer with over 100,000 TONS of beef. Legislature, IMO, remains a failure, then, as our economy is still terrible and we're paying much more than needed for meat... if only legislation would punish exports and reward home sales it would not only help keep t bones from costing 12$ a lb., but also would do the animals great service by not having need for beef factories with poor, overcrowded living conditions. Massive, corporate farming is not only inhumane but obviously unnecessary and costs hundreds of millions when something does go awry (think the big peanut scandal and all involved; last beef recall because of ONE animal led to what... about 300$ dollars??).
Corporate government has already sold out the American economy, but we can and need to change this. Again, this is for the animals sake as well as ours; getting back to smaller ranches, manageable locally for the locality's good. So, maybe there won't be as many Micky D's, less ranchers with Porsches, Escalades... well, it used to be a living that most undertook for other reasons anyways; freedom, working the land and sustaining their families as well as being an important part of their community, thus comfort in knowing you'll retire without missing a beat.... job security. The same is true for almost any occupation.
However, we've allowed legislature to replace mom and pop stores with Walmarts, local farms sold out to developers so we can have huge, corporate farms that are obviously encouraged to sell overseas and again, raise our prices here at home. We're expected to buy cars, but make very parts, much less cars, here at home. So, I don't care if they buy our beef or not; in fact, I'd rather see legislation towards them not wanting to at all, and the same towards making our own goods vs. cheaper ways, cheaper quality of importing. The real market, once the greatest, the American Market, is upended. It needs fixing.
Ban on U.S beef should be lifted in about 10 years. Korea just lifted Canadian ban recently and it was about 10 years long.
got milk? real californa mad cow hummm what will they come up with next
feeding cows flesh is not natural next they will be putting cow dung in cereal
FYI, the holstein that tested positive for MCD/BSE was NOT going to be used for meat purposes. Therefore, she was never sent to a slaughter house where her carcass could have contaminated additionall beef. She was just used for milking purpose only. BSE does NOT transmitt through the milk, therefore consumers should not be worried about this issue.
@MSN, why must you continue to post/use the SAME video of the holstein cow slipping on the concrete for MANY years! In doing so, you are sending a FALSE message to viewers about the topic. Yes, this cow that was slipping may have had MCD, but she is standing on sand on top on concrete, which the sand is supposed to help them from not slipping but it sometimes does not prevent it. Additionally, you need to get your facts straight and present BOTH sides so that consumers are not consumed by fear that you have created.
Additonally, BSE is transmitted through the offal, which is the brain and nerve tissues. According to USDA regulations, these CANNOT and WILL NOT be used for market purposes. They are destoryed/thrown away and cannot even be used for by-products. So...even if a cow does have BSE/MCD, chances are it will not get passed on to humans.
@ModerationinThings, reducing exports will not reduce your cost for T-Bones. In fact, it would HURT local/small farmers because their profit margin would not be a great, therefore forcing MORE of them to sell their land. Not to make a profit but because they HAVE To because the bank man from BIG CITY says to. If you would like cheaper T-bones, talk with a local farmer/rancher. You could have them raise 1 beef cattle to suit your needs (organic, grass fed only, ect), and your cost for the beef would be greatly reduced to market price. You could potentially get 800+ lbs of meat (your choice of cut), for roughly $2-$3/lb + processing cost (which is the cost of the butcher to cut the meat). So if you want cheap T-Bones, then hope you are proud of yourself, because if they are cheap then the local rancher is suffering and can no longer sustain his or her family farm.
Sorry, BSE is very commonly found in the bones and in the marrow of animals and humans with the disease. Yes, neurological tissue puts you at 8X the risk of contracting it but it's also found in the muscle tissue and can be found in milk. Pasteurization and cooking do not destroy it because of what it is. It's a prion - a type of protein. All it takes is one of the mis-folded prions to enter your bloodstream and your chances of it causing a self-sustaining feedback loop of other mis-folded proteins is almost 100%
I'm from Kansas so I understand your concern completely. However, 6 years in the NBC (CBRN) field with the government and a few years of civilian schooling under my belt and I can tell you with 100% certainty that your facts are only half truths.
For example: BSE can't be contracted through milk.
Fact: BSE is rarely found in milk. Leaving a less than 1% chance of contracting it via dairy products.
You read: The less than 1% leaves the chances at effectively 0% so that means 'never'.
Please give facts to people. It makes them more trusting. Not half truths.
If a local farmer has 50 slaughter ready steer each year and does nothing else, even at 3$ lb. that works to $120,000 for the year; 25 a year would mean $60K. And, for the better cuts, they could sell to the local grocer for a few more $$ per pound and the end result would be 8 or 9 beans for the T bone. That's the point; again, that's without doing naught else but having just 25 steer ready yearly, likely $70K after all is said and done. How does that cause suffering to any? A decent sized farm certainly willl do more than just raise steer, and still be considered local and small compared to today's corporate and public land farms. I have a family of 5 now (used to be 6) and have never made over $60K/yr. .
Most farms by me have been in the family for years; parents die, kids inherit and sell the land for $$$$ because of greed, because some years they're paid less than decently to not grow in order to manipulate prices, some because they don't want the work anymore. But, I don't know of any yet that sold because of bank, property payments. It's not A or B; some exporting/importing is always necessary but an American based economy only works if the vast majority of the economy is American based.
@ModerationinAllthings, you are not considering the cost of feed, taxes, and cost of the steer to start off with. A 400 lb steer right now is costing a rancher $900+. It takes a lot of feed and grass to get that steer to 1200 lbs. A rancher is lucky to make a $50 profit off cattle that they sell. & Yes, some families children do sell land for greed, but not all. Even if kids do inherit the land and are farming they still have to pay inheritance tax (when it is in place). There has been FIVE local farms that have sold because of the bank in the last year where I am from. So do not say that you have not hear of any, because now you have. My family farm had to sell 1/2 of our land in the late 1980s because the big shot banks form KC would not allow the farm to have the loans, even though they were making the payments.
@John Doe, please give me your source of the BSE being found in bone and marrow tissue. I have never heard of this before, and if your source is valiable then I am sorry for not telling the full truth. However, to my knowledge BSE is only trasmitted through nerve tissues. Additonally, prions are not just proteins, they are infectious proteins of the brain (i.e. nervous tissues). Also, same with the milk issue, I would like to see your source. According to USDA website, it does not transmit through milk. (I yes, I know cooking/pasteruization does not kill prions).
For some reason my source link is not staying on my post. So....my source is the following:
1)
Thank you.
Well my source link is not staying on this blog. So if you want go to USDA/FSIS website and search for the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy fact sheets under the production & inspection.
You may check and find that hispanic markets use all parts of the beef, and much of the other food animals. In a way, I can agree with this because it means less waste. (Yet I just do not want to eat the 'pure form' of everything.) Also, much of this byproduct has been used in hamburger and sausage products. Another use for all of the parts of the beef, pork, etc. has always been for pet food, which is another way to avoid waste.
As I posted above, and meant to post here, the hispanic markets have been selling all parts of the food animal.
The cows carcass is maybe going to be made into feed??
You may find it helpful to actually read the article.
Want to be safe? Quit eating beef. It is not good for you anyway.
Seems somebody has forgotten we have CANINES. Which by the way - are for eating meat.
It's good for us in moderation. Not every single day in every meal in large amounts. Until the modern age meat wasn't readily available to everyone. It was considered a treat or reserved for only the wealthy.
Pork and poultry have been available over the centuries to most poor populations. It was cattle and sheep that were not always available. Of course, in times of economic catastrophe pork and poultry tend to also be reserved for the wealthy only.
Considering (a) that the USDA allowed "pink slime" to be sold to schools for lunch programs and (b) that even when it became abundantly clear that the people of our great nation are completely and totally grossed-out over "pink slime", the USDA is exploring the idea of continuing to allow "pink slime", provided Frankenmeat producers and users indicate its presence on the packaging label, the fact that a case of "Mad Cow Disease" is being reported in the news provides the clue that there is more to the outbreak than just one dairy cow . . .
Additionally, the infected dairy cow was in California, which is the high-intensity feedlot capital of the known universe, although the Midwest states are striving diligently for the title, which basically maps to a vastly increased probability of close contact among cattle . . .
From the perspective of biology, the problem involves prions, which are snippets of protein that are misfolded, where according to current hypotheses a protein or polypeptide begins in an unfolded form and then folds according to hithertofore unknown rules to assume its functional shape . . .
The problem from this perspective is that misfolded proteins tend to be highly toxic, but everything is made all the more dangerous due to the resistance of prions to being sanitized, since they are particularly gnarly and persistent, with the result being that few scientist do research on prions, because (a) it is difficult to keep a prion research laboratory clean and (b) prions are so highly dangerous . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_folding
This link has some information circa 2003 on prion decontamination difficulties:
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/36/9/1152.full
Another example is the research facility in Colorado which was studying "Mad Deer Disease" (a.k.a., "Chronic Wasting Disease"), where fter a while the research facility and its grounds became contaminated with prions, so a vast effort was made to decontaminate the research facility and its grounds, which included removing the a foot or so of top soil from the land surrounding the research facility and keeping everything out of the area for a year, but this did not sanitize the area and it eventually was declared a toxic site and abandoned, with a new research facility being constructed perhaps 100 miles away in a different county or whatever . . .
[NOTE: This was reported in the news, but it is very difficult to find the actual news reports. Nevertheless, the news reports exist, and finding the news reports is an excellent way to discover how to do web searches, hence is reserved as a stellar exercise for bright and curious novices . . . ]
The USDA are the folks who suggest that cloned animals are no different from naturally reproduced animals, which is among the more patently goofy aspects of Frankenscience . . .
As noted by esbee (see above), the USDA has prohibited beef processors from doing independent BSE testing:
[SOURCE: http://www.news.illinois.edu/news/06/0515madcow.html ]
These are links the CDC and National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center websites, where there is more information:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/prions/
http://www.cjdsurveillance.com/abouthpd.html
Curiously, there are some intriguing conspiracy theories, where one conspiracy theory suggests that "Mad Deer Disease" is the result of doing strange and bizarre tests of the effects of radioactive "fallout" from thermonuclear devices on deer . . .
But perhaps the most strange and bizarre aspect of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) occurred among the natives of Papua New Guinea who routinely consumed the brains of their recently deceased relatives in a patently demented ritual which soon led to Kuru Disease and in the 1950s led to the Australian government prohibit cannibalism among the Fore Tribes of Papua New Guinea in an effort to thwart the continuation of this strange and bizarre ritual . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmissible_spongiform_encephalopathy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_disease
And for all practical purposes, the Frankenfood industry essentially did the same thing with livestock by adding components of slaughtered animals to livestock feed, where by doing this they caused cattle and other livestock to become cannibals . . .
Cattle are supposed to eat grasses, but high-intensity cattle feedlots change everything by switching the cattle to a diet of grains, which in turn causes the gastrointestinal systems of cattle to become increasingly acidic to the point that their systems become ideal breeding grounds for highly toxic E. coli bacteria, which when high-intensity cattle feedlots are located adjacent to farms that grow lettuce, spinach, and other leafy vegetables leads to the yearly onslaught of E. coli food poisoning epidemics, which is the reason that all leafy vegetables are off the Baldenario Approved for Novices Menu™ from late-Spring to early-Fall when production moves to California from the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico . . .
None of this stuff is a huge mystery, and it is not so difficult to find the information, but the sad reality at the dawn of the early-21st century is that our leaders, legislators, judges, and corporations simply do not care about anything other than pinching pennies, enriching themselves, and slowly but surely killing us, really . . .
Really! :-o
Baldenario; I've missed your positings!! Haven't seen you since you still had your 3rd eye amidst the dog and cat food fiasco involving melamine, amongst other nasties. Hope you've been well, and yes; twas part of my point of the ills of legislature and corpor farming tactics.
Should have been 'corporo' farming and a by line, I still do not eat the fish known as Tilapia.
BTW-again the "Pink Slime" is just a nick name for hamburger. It is processed no different than sausage, hot dogs, brats or any of the PROCESSED MEAT we buy. Are we then to stop buying fast food at all of the hamburger joints we visit. Also the 100 % pure Angus beef may be called pink slime. Do you really think that those meat processors will put the high priced cuts of beef in hamburger. All it is is the stuff that's left over , unwanted cuts, expired meat from the meat case--BUT IT'S ALL 100% ANGUS. There is nothing wrong with the hamburger that has been labeled "Pink Slime' ........GET OVER IT.. YOU HAVE BEEN EATING PINK SLIME FOR YEARS IF YOU BUY HAMBURGER-EVEN 100% ANGUS BEEF....
@ModerationInAllThings:
Fantabulo (The All-Seeing Third Eye)™ of Baldenario continues to be with us, as is Alfred the Individual, Thirteenth Cousin of the Earl of Lower Wattlefern by the Lake, Twice Removed (Baldenario's Official Scribe)™, but they have been on vacation recently . . .
Unfortunately, the Red Chinese have not been on vacation, as exhibited by the ongoing problems with so-called "chicken jerky" and basically everything else that comes from Red China . . .
Lots of FUN! :-o
Mad Cow Disease??? I thought the article was about Obama's female supporters.
Baldenario, you said it all.
Nice research work.
OMG, the cow didn't bite Newt Gingrich ,did it?
LOL....I bet it did!!! Or maybe the cow was Newt......!