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Re: Mad Cow Disease, BSE; Justice is served.



In Article <1996Apr8.172817.18041@news.bogo.co.uk>, kenn@mail.bogo.co.uk wrote:
>I think already the thread of the original article has been lost, or
>distorted.
>
>1)  The article was about how consumer demand essential created the
>problem of BSE, which is the case.

I'm willing to "to look at factors that do not fit one's [my] view of the
world", but I'm not willing to simply accept such statements (above) as
fact, particularly in this case. Since it isn't even clear how the disease
is transmitted, I don't believe it's rational to assume that this is how the
problem was created (i.e. consumer demand). It seems to me some people are
trying to make 'the factors' fit their view of the world, instead of
thinking rationally about this problem.

>2)  Sidetracking, with arguments about grain export to the 3rd world
>does not alleviate the problems of consumerism, does it?  The collapse
>of fisheries around the world is perhaps a better example. 
>
>3)  Issues such as that of the dependence of certain 3rd world
>countries on US grain, are a  separate issue, but an equal problem,
>which a number of ideologies (pro-"development" for one) are reluctant
>to address, such as that of over-population.
>
>4)Also the fast depleting water tables of the American Mid-West.

Although this isn't even a sentence, I presume you mean to imply that
irrigation has something to do with BSE, or is this just "sidetracking"? 

>With any ideology there is a reluctance to look at factors that do not
>fit one's view of the world.  In this case (of the follow-up articles)
>it is agriculturalists not looking at limited resources, which
>although may not be directly in the equation, are essential to the
>system.  E.g. Irrigation (depletion of tables, or salinization of the
>land) does have an effect on the overall system, eventually.

You appear to be drifting completely off the topic here. Getting back to the
original thread (that was your intention, wasn't it?), the idea that BSE is
some sort of poetic justice is utterly absurd, and citing consumerism as the
cause is even more ridiculous.
    Tracy