djofraleigh's blog

mad cow is not a fussy fat lady

 abuse

Massachusetts patient tested for mad cow disease

For those who like to watch the weather and track the storms, keep this one on your radar. With the price of corn going up and up, and now the renewed fear of Mad Cow disease might make McDonald's and Burger King start wanting beef that isn't corn fed. I'm all for it. 

Grain fed cattle practices and the association with Mad Cow is complicated. The number one way Mad Cow is spread is thru feed, which is how it ran through Europe. The USA has banned cattle from Britain for 20 years and feed for 10. Still there are European cattle in the US since the ban that are unaccounted for. No one can say for sure there is no mad cow in the US. The scientist who identified the disease says it is not unreasonable to be concerned. (I still eat beef.)

Since only dead cows can be tested we can’t KNOW that Mad Cow isn’t already in our cattle. I like to think not. However, even downer cows are recycled into meal for pigs, foul, etc, and that leaves the trust on feed mills, which are only verbally scolded if they mess up and mix grain so it goes to cattle. I believe they try not to.

The last case was in Texas, and the thousand or so cattle were found put in quarantine until Purina bought them. I don’t know what Purina did with them. My guess is it went to the pigs and chickens as first intended. I think that needs to stop.

Although, currently, we claim to have NO mad cow, we can’t know, and if a case is found, even in a person, and traced possibly to beef, then the current S. Korean deal will fold, along with other exports. Yes, corn prices will fall, as they do after every scare.

E-coli is a more current problem with beef. 5 recalls of beef in 2005, 8 in 2006, 22 in 2007, and the biggest recall in history happened this year with well over a million pounds lost. Corn fed cattle have 300x the e-coli as grass fed. Plus, trying to digest the grain is hard on the cattle and they are given anti-biotic (70% of anti-biotic use is in cattle) which such use is the suspected cause of drug resistant strains, specifically the MRSA that such a problem in hospitals, today. Stomach acid is their and our defense. Cattle are not biologically fit to be heavily grain feed as they are. During the slaughter there is a greatly increased chance of contamination by e-coli when the beef is grain fed. McDonald’s and Burger King demand alone could swing the industry back to grass fed beef, if they choose to.

Why would they, when grass fed is not as efficient? They would to restore confidence in beef to the public. Both are geared up now to go chicken, if they have to. They hold down the price of chicken now, even as feed prices have risen dramatically, but that will end after all the promotions. Will the public go for chicken…well, yes. They keep the chicken price low along with Wal-mart because they are the power buyers.  Now, all we need is some Mad Cow, some e-coli, and some bird flu all at once.