It’s been coming for some time. The writing is on the wall, and if we don’t all band together to scrub this graffiti off it will blot out the American way of life forever. Increasingly there is a movement for “outsourcing” the food American’s eat. Imported beef already makes up 40% of what Americans consume. Cheap imports from China–carrots, canned chickens, you name it–and goods flooding in from Canada and Mexico all threated our nations food security and the right for Americans to farm.
Case in point. The USDA is fighting tooth and nail to ram in the National Animal ID System (NAIS). They are claiming it is essential for controlling the spread of disease and for tracking contaigon. They also claim it is vital for our export market–to keep American Beef competative in the Global Economy. Out of the other side of the Governments twisted mouth are uttered threats. . .err, I mean, warnings about bio-security and potential terrorist attacks on our food supply.
At the very same time, however, the USDA is trying to open our borders to flood America with cheap imported, live cattle–no wonder they want Americans to tack their own animals, we’ll have to keep them separate and safe from these untracked, unregistered foreign beasts. But in the face of mounting opposition to allowing Canadian Cattle into the US, the Department of Agriculture wants to move ahead. In the face of reports of BSE, aka Mad Cow Disease, the USDA keeps cutting back their inspection program.
As for Canada’s ability to track BSE, reporter Tam Moore says:
Canadian investigation comes up empty-handed
While U.S. cattlemen gear up for policy debates over allowing more live cattle imports from Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has given up on tracing the possible source of that country’s most recent victim of mad cow disease.
In a December update, the CFIA said it just can’t narrow down the birthplace of an older Charolais cow that died in early August at an Alberta cow-calf operation. Veterinarians estimate the cow was born between 1996 and 1998. Her owner purchased the cow in 2001 when he assembled a herd of cattle.
The official report posted on the CFIA’s website said there wasn’t individual identification on the animal that matched it to farm purchase records. That left investigators with 13 possible birth farms and nowhere to go.
This is Canada’s eighth native-born BSE case, the ninth if you count a dairy cow sold into Washington state that tested positive in December 2003. Most of the victims seem related to tainted rations sold through Alberta feed mills. There’s speculation that before the country’s July 1997 ban on ruminant protein in cattle feed the BSE-causing agent was spread.
In the United States, two BSE confirmations in older cattle, the only native-born cases reported thus far, also ended without finding the cattle birthplaces.
It doesn’t seem from this that Animal ID is working, or practical or that in hindsight would have prevented any of this. BSE is fomented by feeding ground up cattle to herbivores out of greed. Nothing short of stopping this practice–which was supposed to have ended years ago–will prevent it from occuring again. It would also seem prudent for the USDA to test every head of cattle slaughtered for BSE and not just a weak sampling. That might help assure Korea and other countries the nation exports to that the US is doing the most it can to secure its meats instead of the least. Animal ID offers a costly paliative and none of the guarantees testing would.
As consumers, cooks and Americans we might find it hard to see the connection between what the USDA is doing, the US Beef Industry, Global Trade and our own dinner table. And perhaps that’s the way the USDA would like it. However, unless we begin to act as Consumers, Cooks and Americans, current and future US Policy will steal our rights to eat what we want, from whom we want and substitute it with costly, inferior and potentially dangerous imported products. The USDA is helping to sell America out from under its citizens and sending our jobs and security with it. The only people profiting from this sale are the Government and their Corporate Overlords. Citizens and Farmers will only feel the squeeze.
It is vital for the survival of our communities and our health to send a message to the USDA and our Government by buying locally and supporting the local food system before it is too late and has been sold or regulated away.
Technorati Tags: mad cow, bse, capital press, usda, nais, national animal id system, buy local, farming, agriculture
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This week’s show is here. We run down the news–rising cost of meats & Pig Farm Polluters–talk about the National Animal ID System (NAIS) and cook some Irish winter fare–Carrot & Cumin Soup and Herby Soda Bread.
Grab the Audio for this week’s show. 
A few technical difficulties in this week’s show, but nothing to worry about. . . .
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