MAD COW, it's what's for dinner
 

that is a quote from this article .

It's about a single cow that tested positive for mad cow disease near Yakima Washington U_S_A.

WHAT THE FUCK!!!???

any of you live near there? eat beef? lately?

I don't think I'd want to eat a cow that couldn't move on it's own even if it were otherwise healthy. It makes me think really really hard about the standards we employ, to think that they butchered and shipped this fucking cow anyway.

this was a quote from earlier in the same article:


again, WHAT THE FUCK!!!???



http://imgfarm.com/images/ap/thumbna...1223190215.jpg
Department of Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announces the first suspected case of mad cow...



almost as disturbing is the feeling I get that the writer of this article is much more concerned about the potential economic havoc that this could cause instead of the "safety of the food chain" .....I know the economy is important, but fuckin A.

I appreciate officials being vigilant about BSE, but I wonder if we're overreacting to it now. The incident in Canada earlier this year has almost killed their cattle industry...and is causing beef prices to spike here.

Anyone up for a $9 cheesesteak?

they shipped that cow!

Are you referring to the Canadian cow or the American cow?

It is to laugh. Seriously. This amuses me to no end.

As far as the beef industry, shit. The entire beef industry would be fucked if the government wasn't propping it up. Without subsidization a burger would cost you like twenty bucks. Seriously. It's a fucking joke.

Quzah.

I don't think I'd want to eat a cow that couldn't move on it's own even if it were otherwise healthy.

You know what they feed cows? Other cows. Specifically, the parts you don't eat, such as spinal cord, etc, mixed with grain.

Its yum-meh.

I live near there. I've eaten beef once. By accident.

We were at Chez Monique's burger stand. That place is 30 miles from civilization: the floor is sand, the walls are a transparent tarp, the structure is poles, and they get their supplies by Zodiac rafts (the same that they use in Neal Stephenson's Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller).

I ordered a cheeseburger, not realizing that it contained beef.

I think it's funny (and somewhat cool) that Mad Cow disease has struck America. There are some political and cultural lessons to be learned from it.

Now to pour gasoline on those fears:

1) Well less than one in ten cows that cannot walk are tested for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). This was simply one of few not walking cows that was tissue sampled, processed, and only later did preliminary lab results come back positive. It is not entirely sure where the meat has gone.

2) Although almost no one gets BSE, the related disease called Creutzfeldt--Jakob disease kills about 250 Americans a year. Reasons for CJ are unknown and may be directly traceable to same source as BSE.

3) Even though nerve tissues (brain, spinal cord) are removed from a slaughtered animal (and therefore BSE cannot be spread), what they forget to mention is the removal of that never tissue splatters the rest of the meat. It is not a clean removal process. Therefore can BSE spread by the violent removal of nervous tissue?

4) BSE appears to have an incubation period of 10 years or more. Just another reason why BSE research is so unproductive - since experiements take so long to yield results. That being the case, if BSE is in our food system, then we will find out many years later - long most readers have totally forgotten about this news story.

5) BSE and CJ are believed to be based upon something that is not a bateria and not a virus. This was posted many years ago here in the Cellar. Prions can be cooked for hours, radiated, boiled, deep fat fried, chlorinated, disinfected, mutilated, and frozen. Still they remain intact and deadly. How's that for scary sic fi gone reality.

6) Cannibalism is the primary reason that BSE and CJ type diseases spread. Britian suffered because unused parts of livestock were reprocessed, added to grains, and fed back to cattle, sheep, and chickens. Cannibal tribes suffered from BSE like diseases because a 'same species' diet spreads prions among humans.


Having said all this - to intentionally hype fears with honest facts - now put it all into perspective. BSE and CJ are not consider dangerous. They are extremely rare diseases that make an automobile ride to the grocery store far more dangerous. Funny how numbers can turn all those fears of points one thru six into one step above nothing. Demonstrated is how the Daily News, et al can turn an unimportant event (as made obvious by numbers) into a wholesale fear of beef (an emotional response based only on half truths). It is a simple news story, with important facts about a relatively unsafe food distribution system, but hyped by an all but non-existant threat.

One should be far more concerned about where TacoBell gets their meat - from a Pantry Pride plant outside Souderton PA whose FDA meat inspectors observed chicken on the dirty floor simply put into the 'clean and ready to ship' line. Listeria? That is where the diseased turkey meat shipped throughout the US was coming from. The delivery trucks to Taco Bell no longer have the Pilgrim's Pride labels on their side. You can sometimes see the glue from that Pantry / Pilgrim's Pride label as the same trucks deliver to Taco Bell - and probably other Pepsico retail food outlets.

Re: MAD COW, it's what's for dinner
 

Some people post honest facts. Others waste our time with silly emotions and unnecessary obscenities. It implies the poster's intelligence - and maybe from what he eats. Those with poor diets, poor intelligence, and irrelevant conclusions would waste good bandwidth using unnecessary obscenities. In the meantime, that meat could be anywhere in the country - not just the Washington region. Helps to first learn facts before posting hyped fears - and obscenities.

and some people are assholes.


who are you to try to dictate to me what type of material to post? If I see a news story and have an emotional reaction, and I want to see how other people feel about it, is it not my right to put it out there? what the fuck is this place for then? Maybe I don't know a lot about it. Maybe I WANT to and that's why i put it on.

I said "what the fuck!!!???" because that's what the fuck I meant. If you have issues with fucking obscenities, maybe you should go fuck yourself for a while. goddamn emotion cop. waste bandwidth! don't look now, we're running out of bandwidth! oh no! fuck!

merry christmas, dickhead.

More well used bandwidth - or is this masquarading as an intellectual response? Entertainment is setting off an explosive mind. So easy. Not one obscene word is even required as a detonator.

Still awaiting a word of wisdom on the Sec of Agriculture's statements. If her statements are so awe inspiring - then why not limit your vocabulary to one letter words such ! . Then no need to captialize all letters. No shouting obscenities to make a complete response.

Fact that makes it all better: BSE can't be transmitted via "muscle cuts" of meat such as... well... STEAKS.

Therefore, from here on out just eat STEAK, and avoid non-muscle beef such as LIVER.

This has been a public service announcement.

I'm wondering how long its been SOP to put down cows into the human food supply? I always thought around here down animals went to the rendering plant to end up in dog chow etc...

mmmmm.... grass fed bison