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A Message to the FDA: Cut the Bull
Millions of Canadians can enjoy their weekend barbecues this summer knowing their government officials have taken action to protect them from the risk of mad cow disease.
Unfortunately, US consumers are not so lucky. Our own USDA and FDA are creating the perfect storm for increased cases of mad cow to be introduced into US herds by allowing the importation of higher-risk Canadian cattle and failing to enforce stricter feed bans that prevent transmission of the disease.
The latest government snafu was recently brought to light by R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) which represents thousands of US cattle producers.1
According to R-CALF, the incidence of mad cow (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE) is between 3 to 8 cases per million cattle in Canadian herds, a rate that is 18 to 48 times higher than in the US. These alarmingly high numbers haven’t seemed to faze the USDA. They’ve allowed millions of Canadian steers to enter the US and co-mingle freely with US herds, taking no steps to protect US livestock from the higher risk of mad cow disease.
By the USDA’s own estimates, 19 BSE-infected cattle will be introduced into the US over the next 20 years and two US cattle will subsequently become infected. This translates into a 15% higher exposure rate of BSE for the US consumer.1 Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is the fatal neurological disease that results when humans consume BSE-infected beef.
You may think that’s enough to be concerned about, but there’s more to the story that ups the consumer risk of BSE. For years, the US and Canada followed the common practice of using “ruminant to ruminant feed” (ground up cattle parts including the brain, eyes, and spinal cord) in the livestock’s feed. This questionable practice allowed BSE to be transmitted to healthy cows through cross contamination and infected feed.
In 1997, both the US and Canada implemented a basic ban on ruminant to ruminant feed, but despite that measure, multiple cases of mad cow disease still showed up in Canada — even in cattle born years after the 1997 feed ban. This prompted the Canadian government in 2007 to upgrade its original feed ban and finally protect its citizens from BSE-transmitted feed.
In 2008, the FDA announced it was also implementing a stricter feed ban to take effect on April 27, 2009. This proposed date would give US cattle producers enough time to revamp their feeding practices and comply with the new regulations. As you might guess, April 27 came and went and the FDA did not begin enforcing the upgraded feed ban. It has now been delayed until October 26, 2009.2
According to R-CALF, both the USDA and FDA are undermining the efforts of US cattle producers to protect consumers from the threat of BSE. The solution as they see it is to immediately prohibit the importation of higher risk cattle or else implement the upgraded feed ban now.
While the Feds drag their feet in protecting Americans from BSE, major importers of US beef are not. The following table excerpted from a letter filed by R-CALF and sent to the FDA on April 13, 2009 shows the severe restrictions that are being placed on US cattle producers by major beef-importing countries because of its leniency in allowing Canadian cattle imports.3
BSE RESTRICTIONS ON U.S. BEEF IMPOSED BY MAJOR BEEF IMPORTING COUNTRIES
|
Country |
Age Restriction |
Specified Risk Material (SRM) Definition |
Commodity Restrictions |
|
Japan |
20 months or younger |
Head (excluding tongue and cheek meat), palatine and lingual tonsils, spinal cord and dura matter, distal ileum, vertebral column, and dorsal root ganglia. |
No ground beef, processed beef, head meat, finely textured beef, or mechanically separated meat. |
|
Korea |
Under 30 months |
Skull, brain, eyes, distal ileum, tonsils, spinal cord, vertebral column. |
Cattle must be born and raised in the United States, or imported from a country deemed eligible by the Korean government to export beef or beef products to Korea, or raised in the United States for at least 100 days. Trace-back records must be maintained for at least 2 years. No mechanically recovered meat or mechanically separated meat. |
|
Mexico |
Under 30 months |
Skull, brain, eyes, tonsils, spinal cord, and small intestine. |
No ground meat, feet, sweetbreads, Weasand meat, or head meat. |
|
Hong Kong |
Under 30 months |
Skull (including brain, eyes and trigeminal ganglia), tonsils, spinal cord, dorsal root ganglia (with the vertebral column) and intestine. |
No ground beef, bone-in beef, edible offal, or beef derived from advanced meat recovery systems. |
Once upon a time, we could rely on the US government to ensure that food producers provided consumers with access to safe, healthy, and affordable fresh food. If R-CALF is any indication, food producers are now pleading with government agencies to do their jobs and protect us. Something is terribly wrong with this picture.
References
- http://www.opednews.com/articles/FDA-Plans-to-Break-Food-Sa-by-R-CALF-USA-090417-801.html.
- http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:4qhnPQsU-XYJ:www.federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2009-09466_PI.pdf+April+9+federal+register&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us.
- http://www.r-calfusa.com/food_safety/090413-RCALFUSACommentsonProposedDelayofFDAFeedBan.pdf.
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Tags: beef, FDA, mad cow disease, USDA
Our “FDA” is a joke, it should be disbanded, or seriously revamped and funded so it’s not a political, and pardon the pun”cash-cow” for the greedy and the irresponsible…
This latest snafu proves that not only FDA are not able to protect us, but they hinder free enterprize and good practices.
I heard a while ago that US cattle ranchers are forbidden from implementing their own program of testing their live stock for mad cow disease.
This is, again, absolutely incredible!
R-Calf is a protectionist group of US cattle producers whose main interest is in keeping Canadian product out of the US for their own gain. In actuality, Canadian beef is far safer than US beef because of all the precautions taken in Canada. These precautions benefit US consumers as well when it comes to Canadian beef. R-Calf has no credibility …their stats are skewed in order to present a logical argument to US consumers and government officials to ban Canadian beef in order to create a monopoly for themselves, with the inevitable monetary benefit such a ban would ensure.
How about some scientific facts, before scaremongering.
You never mentioned BSE-testing, which is done to animals over 30 months which show symptoms.
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/heasan/disemala/bseesb/surv/surve.shtml
Compared to those of USA
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/hot_issues/bse/surveillance/ongoing_surv_results.shtml
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/hot_issues/bse/downloads/BSE_ongoing_surv_plan_final_71406%20.pdf
So it not likely that those infectuous sick animals would come to food chain anyway.
(Are you aware that BSE can be spontanous too, so testing is the way limit the disease everywhere)
OK, it is not as good a system as EU has, where all animals over 48 months are tested - and all younger suspect animals like US does.
One might ask, what is your reason NOT to mention about those tests - as “concerned citizen”?
Like the previous writer said, your opinion is just opinion, and facts are biased. THAT is a disgrace that something like your writing is allowed here.
You are sadly misinformed and so are American consumers who blindly go to the supermarket and pick out their favorite cuts loaded with cancer causing growth hormones and ground up telephone books etc.Get your heads out of the sand and see the light.
By the way Canadian beef producers report all cases of mad cow and Americans are repoted to cover alot of cases up to avoid the problems
Good day,
Of course the article in general is very interesting, but it is given “on the edge of the spoon” like one says.
At least, if one example of any of those cases were given some of the secrets to see how simple it could be, it would arrise more of our interest and a better understanding.
I am from Israel, and practising the alternative medicine, and of course read a lot of articles, books and internet from which is possible to learn. So, I am expecting more about cases in the future.
Have a nice day, Jenny
This article is slanderous to Canadian beef producers and is poorly researched. I firmly believe that the US farmers have been hiding Mad Cow for years. I have personally seen the deplorable conditions some of the feedlots operate under. - Animals resting on piles of cow dung, cows udders hanging right into the filthy mud that they call home. The resource you use (US Beef producers) highlight ONLY the bad incidences in trying to protect their ‘turf’. I also would like to know HOW these people know WHEN the cow contacted the disease. Some of these animals travel back & forth between Canada & the US several times in their lives.
Now I do believe humans should not consume the organs of these animals regardless of where they were raised.
But PLEASE be unbiased and report ALL the facts on these issues.
Why don’t you have a total health breakthrough and stop supporting meat and animal murder in any form? The cruelty and violence in animal raising and slaughter is well known. How can anyone expect good health or happiness from food which depends upon the misery and slaughter of another.
Then there is the phenomenol misallocation of water, feed, and land resources connected to the cattle and slaughter industries, which is thoroughly documented.
When will you become completely, Total Health Breakthroughs?
I find it deeply disturbing, that with the science to date, especially with the science to date, transmission studies, the more virulent atypical strains of the BSE i.e. h-BSE and l-BSE, both of which have now been documented in North America, that we are even still discussing this most important topic. The industry involved has beat this mad cow feed ban to death, and still refuse to comply. IF they would have adhered to policy, rules and regulations put forth August 4th, 1997, when the partial, and voluntary ruminant to ruminant feed ban was first put in place, they would not still be crying the same tune. WE need not only to enforce the present ban, but strengthen it, especially to include blood in the ban. WE (the consumer), was promised this would happen years ago. For Pete’s sake, this will be the third president to have to address these same questions, and I pray that this one has the guts to finally do something. We need NOT discuss this for one more second. We had 8 years that President Bush literally covered up mad cow disease, and let literally millions and millions of pounds of mad cow feed into commerce to be fed out. IN one feed ban recall alone in 2007, 10 MILLION PLUS POUNDS was fed out into commerce. and under this same President, we now millions of kids across our Nation that have been needlessly exposed to the mad cow agent via the infamous USDA CERTIFIED DOWNER COW DEAD STOCK SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM. if you think for one moment that the largest meat recall in the history of the USA was because a few animals were filmed being abused, your only kidding yourself. that meat was recalled because dead stock downer cows are at the highest risk to carry mad cow disease, and they had been feeding our children this stuff for years. AND then had the nerve to lie to us about THE GREAT BSE FIREWALL IN THE USA THAT WOULD PROTECT THE CONSUMER I.E. THE BSE FEED BAN, that never was nothing more than ink on paper. who will monitor these children in the years and decades to come for a human form of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy? who can with a CJD/TSE surveillance system and CJD Questionnaire set up the way it is now? you can’t.
R-CALF and the CJD Foundation, seem oblivious to the fact that the USA has a mad cow problem. THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE CANADIAN BORDER. this is about feeding cows to cows in the USA, USA RUMINANT MAD COW FEED IN COMMERCE, and the fact the USA has had a mad cow problem for years.
all R-CALF wants to do is blame it on Canada, close the border, and then continue to feed ruminant feed to USA cattle, and ignore the TSE problem in the USA bovine, read closely what Bullard says from R-CALF ;
“We either implement this feed ban without any further delay or we stop the source of this problem by removing and reversing the Canadian cattle that continues to enter this country” said Bullard
http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=10171123
ENOUGH already $ NO MORE DISCUSSION PLEASE, WE NEED ACTION !
STOP ALL MAD COW FEED REGARDLESS !!!
I strenuously urge President Obama to NOT discuss this for one more moment, actions must be put forth now, and enforce such actions.
I strenuously urge President Obama to ENHANCE the feed ban to include blood, and enforce said regulations, based on sound science.
I strenuously urge President Obama to ban the use of “poultry litter” and the use of all mammalian and poultry protein in ruminant feed,as a feed ingredient for ruminant animals, and enforce said regulations, based on sound science.
I strenuously urge President Obama to ban the use of “plate waste” as a feed ingredient for ruminants, and enforce said regulations, based on sound science.
I strenuously urge President Obama to ban from human food (including dietary supplements please see latest May 2009 CDC warning on these type supplements, CWD, and Elk Antler Velvet), and cosmetics a wide range of bovine- derived material so that the same safeguards that protect Americans from exposure to the agent of BSE through meat products regulated by USDA also apply to food products that FDA regulates, and enforce such actions, based on sound science.
I strenuously urge President Obama to further minimize the possibility of cross- contamination of ruminant and non-ruminant animal feed by requiring equipment, facilities or production lines to be dedicated to non-ruminant animal feeds if they use protein that is prohibited in ruminant feed. Currently, some equipment, facilities and production lines process or handle prohibited and non-prohibited materials and make both ruminant and non-ruminant feed — a practice which could lead to cross-contamination, and enforce said regulations, based on sound science.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
BSE MAD COW TESTING USA 2009 FIGURES
Month Number of Tests
Feb 2009 — 1,891
Jan 2009 — 4,620
http://madcowtesting.blogspot.com/2009/04/bse-mad-cow-testing-usa-2009-figures.html
please see ;
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Docket No. FDA2002N0031 (formerly Docket No. 2002N0273) RIN 0910AF46 Substances Prohibited From Use in Animal Food or Feed; Final Rule: Proposed
http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2009/04/docket-no-fda2002n0031-formerly-docket.html
http://prionunitusaupdate2008.blogspot.com/2009/04/r-calf-and-usa-mad-cow-problem-dont.html#comments
Okay, so I have read the other comments here and I am confused about the difference in the way Canadians vs Americans treat their cattle. HOWEVER, if we are talking about TOTAL HEALTH BREAKTHROUGHS, let’s look at all of the American practices; not just the beef industry.
The FDA is by far the worst organization for trying to “protect” the citizens of this country. In all my years of research, I cannot believe our country has allowed the FDA to encourage all of the practices to harm us. To start with, MSG and all the other names used to describe it to manufacturers and hide from the label-reading public. When I recently talked to a restaruant who makes their own ice cream, I said, “Please tell me that there is no MSG in ice creas.” and she said, “I have read recently where the FDA has okayed the quar gum used in making ice cream to be sprayed with MSG while it is growing.” Also, the FDA has okayed that our vegetables and fruit are also sprayed while growing with MSG. Now, you say that not everyone is sensitive to MSG. But, if you do your research as I have done, you will find that we are all subject to its side effects. Yes, the side effects are bad enough that I believe the population will contract many diseases that could have been prevented had our FDA been doing its job, instead of being paid off by the drug and food manufactures. It is a shame that this kind of organization and political crap has been allowed to continue with each president having the ability to correct this situation. So, OBAMA supporters, wake up.
Now, my next thought, we as a people, need to have an attorney stand up and start a class action suit against the FDA and all food manufacturers who are continueing these bad practices. Please stand up and be counted, so we can correct this problem. WE WANT THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR FOOD. IF YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE ATTORNEYS OR SOMEONE WHO KNOWS AN ATTORNEY WHO WOULD STEP UP TO THE PLATE, PLEASE LEAVE US ALL A NOTIFICATION ON THIS WEBSITE. THANK YOU.
I never cease to be amazed at how you folks look to R-Calf as the holy-grail of mad-cow knowledge -
Why not review other facts before trumpeting the bandwagon?:
1. US and Canadian Cattle have been going BOTH ways across our borders for 150 or more years.
2. Sometimes US cattle are fattened in Canadian feedlots and sometimes Canadian Cattle are fattened in US feedlots. Which is which it totally dependent upon cattle prices in a given area.
3. As you have already mentioned [but it seems R-Calf and its congregation have overlooked] - BOTH Canada and US banned the feeding of ruminant to ruminant feeds to cattle in 1997.
4. Statistically, there are 14 million cattle in Canada and 96 million cattle in USA.
5. Since we are joined-at-the-hip, with cattle breeding, feeding,fattening and killing practices the same or similar in both countries, [notwithstanding differences in veterinary medicines or growth hormones that are approved in one jurisdiction but not the other] there REALLY should be no logical difference in the outcome.
6. It should follow then that incidence rate of BSE should be very close from one country to another.
7. If US/ R-Calf has some mechanism for ELIMINATING BSE- other than simply NOT reporting incidence of BSE to the FDA and American public - then they should make it known - for the betterment of mankind in general and the BEEF INDUSTRY in SPECIFIC. Unless of course, there is NO SUCH MECHANISM.
8. Therefore, I suggest to you that the LOWER INCIDENCE of BSE in the US compared to that of Canada is simply a case of DISHONESTY. R-calf has asked their members to SHOOT - SHOVEL and SHUT-UP!! Rather than focusing on public health - their values are focused on PROFIT of their Membership and protectionism from cattle imported from ANY jurisdiction. Money talks - bullshit walks.
9. For all you beef consumers out there - anywhere: Just because BSE has NOT been reported by your cattle association doesn’t mean you don’t have a similar/same risk as cattle coming from other jurisdiction.
Wake-up-and-smell-the-fertilizer…
The fact is that nothing is valued,or sacred anymore. The The only thing that matters in business today, is the almighty buck! The FDA has shown that over and over again with the way they handle pharmaceutical problems. I wish we could find a way to get every news station in the country to cover this problem at the same time. I bet the FDA would pull it’s pants up then. It’s time to dismantle the FDA. We need some sort of policing that really really, and genuinely cares about people before money. “The almighty buck rules” is an aspect that travels from the government to the military, to business in this country and all over the world. It’s a sad state of affairs, for everyone. What about supplements that are made from Bovine colostrum. Are they a danger also? I would think anything we eat from cows, will now be a worry. I don’t want a class action suit against the FDA, that will just cost us more money, and make the attorneys rich! No, I personally, just want rid of the FDA, once and for all!
The government agencies that are designated to protect consumers are certainly not doing their jobs. This goes for the FDA and the USDA. I give them a grade of F. Maybe President Obama should make revamping these agencies as part of the Change We Will See now that he is president. There must be something he can do. Very soon there won’t be any type of meat we can eat. No beef, no chicken, no pork and possibly no fish(pollution in water). How many consumers are aware of the problems with the feeding of cows, etc. Maybe we need Tea Parties about this. Is there anything safe to eat?
you need to get the facts and not the bias opinions/research.
i am beginning to wonder how much biased opinion is in other articles that have come from total health, this article was not a proper non-bias research!!!
seriously………………….
After reading this article, I will unsubscribe. After reading the comments, maybe I’ll keep the subscription if only for the comments. Thank goodness for the thinking public.
Why would I buy your prducts when I read the BULL that you are sending out on this newsletter. Do you think that American cattle producers are protectionist? Really? Canadian cattle are are just as full of mad cow desease as the cattle in the good’ol USA. Although maybe the cold up here gives the cows more to be mad about. Do you think American forest companies are protectionist? Come on now. Who needs to bone up on the real information and facts out there? Pretty soon you’re going to tell us not to eat those cows. That will be the last day I read this page. Hey, maybe I have some of that mad cow disease after all.