Song in my head: Momma don't take my Kodachrome away..........Paul Simon


I took a few days off due to extreme fatigue and flu like symptoms. Some days it's all I can do to take care of myself and my cat, Alley. On really bad days I lay down on my bed frequently and regroup. I might do some meditation to wish away a nagging pain or renew my energy supply so I can accomplish tasks of the day. More likely I will nap, catching up on years of unproductive sleep.

MAD COW UPDATES

The following FSNet listserv mad cow articles are from the last three days, unless otherwise noted.

Wife of Ambassador to Japan Asks Agriculture Secretary to Allow Private Mad Cow Tests

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker, wife of the U.S. ambassador to Japan, is asking the Agriculture Department to reconsider its refusal to let American meatpackers do their own tests for mad cow disease.
Such testing could promote confidence in U.S. beef and help re-establish exports to countries that ban it now, Baker said in a letter to Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman. |link|


Beef industry too reliant on live exports: report

A new Senate committee report was cited as recommending that the federal government must invest in Canada's ability to process its own meat if it wants to prevent a future case of mad-cow disease from wreaking havoc with the economy.
Donald Oliver, chairman of the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, which produced the report, was quoted as saying, "We believe that there is going to be another case of BSE. We have got to take public policy steps now by legislation and rules and regulations to make sure the impact is never again as bad as it has been for this one BSE cow." |link|

I believe that too.

And then we have a Candian slaughterhouse planning to test all of its animals.

Slaughterhouse will test all cattle for mad cow

A group of farmers in northwestern Alberta that plans to build a slaughterhouse to market their livestock wants, according to this story, to privately test all of its product for mad cow disease.
Peace Country Tender Beef Co-op was also cited as saying it will include a bar code on all products to allow consumers to track the meat online back to its home ranch.
Co-op chairman Neil Peacock said the moves are attempts to answer North American and international consumer calls for increased accountability and safety.

I bet their government allows them. Our USDA opposes such stringent testing, citing costs and unnautural fears of a mind wasting disease whose incubation period is unknown.

Company's mad cow tests blocked: USDA fears other firms' meat would appear unsafe

To Creekstone Farms manager Bill Fielding, his company's idea to test for mad cow disease every one of the cattle it slaughters in order to satisfy its very important customers in Japan -- customers the company needs to survive -- does not seem unreasonable.
The story says that to do that, Creekstone has spent more than $500,000 to build the first mad cow testing lab in an American slaughterhouse, and it has hired seven chemists and biologists to operate it. The company made the investment after Fielding returned from a trip to Japan convinced that officials there would lift their ban on American beef -- imposed after an infected cow was found in Washington state last December -- only if American companies adopt the Japanese practice of testing every animal. |link|

and today's New York Times reluctantly agrees to side with consumers.

A Strange Ban on Testing Beef |link|