WASHINGTON (AP) – The government on Saturday permanently banned the slaughter of cows too sick or weak to stand on their own, seeking to further minimize the chance that mad cow disease could enter the food supply. The Agriculture Department proposed the ban last year after the biggest beef recall in U.S. history. The recall involved a Chino, Calif., slaughterhouse and “downer” cows. The Obama administration finalized the ban on Saturday. “As part of our commitment to public health, our Agriculture Department is closing a loophole in the system to ensure that diseased cows don’t find their way into the food supply,” President Barack Obama said in his weekly radio and video address.
Those kind of cows pose a higher risk of having mad cow disease. They also susceptible to infections from bacteria that cause food poisoning, such as E. coli, because the animals wallow in feces. The recall also raised concerns about the treatment of cattle and came after an investigator for the Humane Society of the United States videotaped workers abusing downer cows to force them to slaughter. A partial ban on downer cows was in place; it resulted from the nation’s first case of mad cow disease, in 2003.
Obama called the country’s food inspection system “a hazard to public health,” citing outbreaks of deadly food poisoning in peanuts this year, peppers and possibly tomatoes last year and spinach in 2006. He named his candidates for the top jobs at the Food and Drug Administration, which together with the Agriculture Department is responsible for much of the government’s food inspection.
This should have been done many years ago. I only hope Obama makes a wiser choice for the FDA than he has with his other appointments, I promise not to hold my breath.
#13 & 8 -more or less says it all.
–
um.. this is just a sham.. they are only addressing the symptoms and not the CAUSE.
this is done so they look good in the eyes of the un-informed public…and the industial scale agrobiz monopoly gets to continue it’s unscrupulous practices (and stuff money in the right “holes”)
the problem is what they are feeding the livestock..madcow, stems from feeding livestock the brains and neural tissue
(spinal cord etc) from compromised animals.
downers…who knows. probably due to use/overuse of rBGH and antibiotics. GMO feed
has been proven in studies done outside the US
to cause all sorts of defects, many which are more pronounced in second and esp third generations. -cloned animals are not helping the issues much either.
anyway..the feed is the root problem. any legislation that does not address the feed issue just proves the regulators are still taking money from the “vested interests” and
don’t give a rat’s ass about public health
or the health of the livestock. (one and the same?)
madcow is not an issue. just makes for great sound bites.
the fact that most of the higher-ups in the FDA used to work or lobby for a biotech/ag companies says it all.
that obama selected tom vilsack as secretary of agriculture.. -a biotech-gmo/industrial
farming poster child, just proves it’s business as usual on capitol hill.
meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
change you can believe in. (?)
::yawn::
-s
Uh, people, this isn’t rocket science. A cow that can’t stand up is most likely sick. You want to eat beef from a sick cow? Not me.
Oh! Oh! I have an idea! We should just let those nice cattlemen do whatever they want without any of that burdensome government regulation! After all, it worked so well with those nice Wall Street men, didn’t it?
clues for the clueless, 5¢
what a putz.. it’s a powergrab by agrobiz and the feds, you brainwashed xxxx.. this is a springboard action to help foster support for Bill: H.R. 875 -and that bill is leading to the UN’s Codex Alimentarius crap (effective dec 31,09)
the bill’s sponsor’s husband works for Monsanto
-see how that works??????????
(my god, if i had a nickel for every gullible
fool i run across..)
go here for a snippet of the tip of the iceburg
on HR875. it outlines some of the points for those who have trouble thinking.
Federal Takeover of Food Regulation in H.R. 875
http://naturalnews.com/025824.html
HR875 BILL: http://govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-875
open your eyes.
(and turn off your tv)
-s
This might give them a incentive to treat the cows better during transport.
As soon as it costs them money…
/me lights a match…
-s