June 27, 2006

Mad cow II: The social disease

Holman W. Jenkins Jr., a member of the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal, writes that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been determined to keep mad cow a matter of government-to-government diplomacy. Now comes the payoff in the form of a recent agreement that has Japanese government inspectors descending on U.S. meatpacking plants, snapping photos and judging whether their output is fit for Japanese consumption. FSNet Link

June 27, 2006

Judge slows pace of suit over mad cow

A small U.S. meatpacker will have three more weeks, until July 14, to file court documents asking for an immediate end to the federal monopoly on mad-cow tests, a U.S. district court judge decided on Tuesday.
Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC wants to test all of its cattle for brain-wasting mad cow disease, saying it would give customers in nations like Japan confidence in U.S. beef. The Agriculture Department says the tests are a food safety matter, not a marketing gimmick. FSNet Link