I just don't believe that the press hasn't cottoned on to how far advanced this Mad Cow problem (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) is in the US. The scientific community has believed for years that the problem was far more advanced than the Department of Agriculture or the press has reported.
The issue at hand is that the progress of the disease can take four or five years to actually show up in a cow. So, since the American meat industry routinely slaughters cows at two to three years, we don't see the disease manifested. But that doesn't mean it isn't there. There have been reports that it may be passed on genetically too, so new generations have the disease but again we don't see it.
We have most likely had the disease in this country ever since some bright bulb thought of "enriching" the feed given to their cattle with ground-up cattle brains and spinal tissue. That our meat supply has been declared "safe" is just another big lie that we've been fed (so to speak).
Now, I'm not going to stop eating beef but I think it's the height of idiocy to suggest that most of us red-meat-eating, Atkins-loving citizens haven't been threatened by this for years.
Posted by artandscience at December 24, 2003 12:54 PM