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Mad Cow Disease, Oprah Show
A remarkable series of exchanges on Mad Cow Disease/BSE occurred on
the Oprah show April 16th. It stirred up so much dust the network had her
schedule a second show to give the National Cattlemens Association
spokesperson, Dr. Gary Weber, a chance to "clear the air". A reading of the
transcript shows why it is likely changes lie ahead in U.S. rendering and
livestock protein feeding practices. About 10% of rendered cattle protein
is fed back to cattle according to USDA statistics. "You mean cattle eat
cattle...how disgusting..." sort of summarizes the reaction of people on the
show. Given the developments in Britain re BSE (more cases, the youngest
victim yet a 15 year old girl who loved hamburgers), the findings re the
genetic mutation in cattle/people that seem to be shared in a portion of the
population, and information about rendering industry practices, it is
certain we have just scene the tip of the iceberg on this front. Both the
poulty and hog industries are major users of rendered animal protein; both
species live too short a life for a disease comparable to BSE to manifest
clinical signs, yet possibly they could harbor and pass on the disease to
other mammals that consume brain tissues, in particular.
On the manure management front at the farm/feedlot level, and the
slaughter house level because of management of offal, the country is
beginning to gain appreciation for some of the indirect costs of large scale
livestock agriculture. Put simply, rendering and feeding offal to other
animals is the only way the packing industry can economically "dispose" of
the volume of offal coming out of a major plant when 1,000 plus cattle are
killed per day per shift.
It is also interesting to dig a little and find out which
corporations control various aspects of the process -- the feedlots, packing
houses, rendered protein ingredients businesses, feed business (customers of
those who produce rendered protein supplements), and meat business. I bet
when someone tracks down who the players are, they will find some
wonderfully convenient "closed (corporate) loops", whereby one division of a
company sells product from waste to another division, who then sells
processes it and sells in to another division, and ultimately to the
consumer. Since most regulations pertaining to quality control in the
handling of down animals and slaughterhouse offal are basically voluntary
and unenforced, I wonder if the public will "buy" the assurances bound to be
offered that "all is well." We'll see. This whole issue is also going to
shine a bright light on the authority of gov't food safety agencies versus
big business, as well as the costs of the de-regulatory tide sweeping the
country. The whole mess startyed in Britain in the wake of the Thatcher
gov'ts deregulatory posture.
A transcript of the Oprah show is worth reading, and shows what a
hard job industry spokespeople are facing. The transcript can be gotten off
the Web at http://www.av.qnet.com/~newveg I have been told.
Everyone who cares about agriculture and food safety needs to pay
attention to the details and information coming out on BSE. This is clearly
an explosive issue that under the best of circumstances -- handled prudently
by both industry and gov't with professionalism, reasoned and responsive NGO
involvement, etc -- will be very hard to keep from getting out of control.
No one wins under such circumstances. USDA and gov't is going to have to
act much more decisively, and fast, or they will lose credibility and
control before the debate even gets going (except for a few isolated TV
shows, newspaper articles). At a minimum USDA, shoulder to shoulder with
industry, should announce an immediate ban, pending a thorough scientific
evaluation/new research, etc, of species to species feeding of rendered
protein. First priority should then be determining whether
eggs/poultry/pigs can harbor the disease and pass it on to people in any
way. Such steps may buy enough time to determine what else needs to be done.
If such steps are not taken, the livestock sector will have a problem on its
hands way worse than $4.50 corn, as bad as that is.