Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"An Agriculture Department agency paid a freelance writer at least $7,500 to write articles touting federal conservation programs and place them in outdoors magazines," reports the Washington Post.
"Beef trade with Japan and Canada was on the minds of producers at the annual National Cattlemen's Beef Association convention in San Antonio, Texas," a man's voice intones, as the television news segment opens with a shot of a slowly rotating sign reading "U.S. Premium Beef." The voice continues, "Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns addressed the gathering and afterward took questions from the media."
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"A fierce battle over the Central American Free Trade Agreement is expected," reported the Grand Forks Herald. "The agreement needs the approval of both houses of Congress. ...
Craig Gordon of the website Now Age Press recently interviewed me. He was interested in the current situation with mad cow disease in the US, a subject Sheldon Rampton and I addressed in our prescient 1997 book Mad Cow USA. Craig also was curious about the origins of the Center for Media and Democracy and how issues as seemingly disparate as Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH), Mad Cow Disease and Bush's war on Iraq all fall under our investigative lens.
For a while, it looked as though one lone cow might succeed.
Government officials promised to implement food safety measures long championed by consumer, family farm, health, environmental, and public interest organizations. Industry groups -- and their former lobbyists now working for regulatory agencies -- were on the defensive.
An alarming, but not surprising, investigation in today's Vancouver Sun illustrates why the mad cow feed rules in both Canada and the US are completely inadequate.
The paper reports that "secret tests on cattle feed conducted by a federal agency earlier this year found more than half contained animal parts not listed in the ingredients, according to internal documents obtained by the Vancouver Sun. The test results raise questions about whether rules banning the feeding of cattle remains to other cattle -- the primary way in which mad cow disease is spread -- are being routinely violated. ... Controlled experiments have shown an animal needs to consume as little as one milligram -- about the size of a grain of sand -- of material contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) to develop the brain-wasting disease."
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that an "animal tested 'inconclusive' for mad cow disease in two rapid screening tests"; the results of further testing will be released next week.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"U.S. and Japanese negotiators struck a deal Saturday to allow limited imports of U.S. beef into Japan," reports Canadian Press. Japan imported $1.7 billion of U.S. beef in 2003, but closed its markets last December, after a Washington state cow was found to have mad cow disease. The chair of the Canada Beef Export Federation called the announcement was "old news," saying, "The Americans are trying to put a new spin on it for their election." The head of U.S.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"After a case of mad cow disease surfaced in Washington State late last year, federal regulators vowed to move swiftly to adopt rules to reduce the risks of further problems. ... But a few weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration, after heavy lobbying from the beef and feed industries, took steps to delay - and ... possibly kill" new animal feed regulations.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
The Canadian government fired three scientists who have taken high-profile stances critiquing livestock feed regulations to address mad cow disease, against Monsanto's milk hormone BGH and against new uses for Eli Lilly's antibiotic tylosin for livestock.
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