NEWS: Round 2 for Mad Cow Disease - NYT editorial 7/1/05

[Guest guest]

NYT is slightly mistaken -- actually a lot of farmers *do* want to

institute a national ID system. Wonder who's fighting it -- and why.

 

ys

hkdd

 

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New York Times - Editorial

 

July 1, 2005

 

Round 2 for Mad Cow Disease

 

"I enjoyed beef this noon for lunch," said Mike Johanns, the new

agriculture secretary, a few days ago. "It is the safest beef in the world."

 

This is what agriculture secretaries are paid to say, especially now

that a second American cow has mad cow disease. The cow was tested

several times here, with contradictory results. The conclusive test was

done seven months later in England.

 

Mr. Johanns insisted that the system worked and was being improved. The

cow, which was badly crippled, was kept out of the food supply. Mr.

Johanns said that more cows, some 388,000 annually, were being tested,

enough to build what he called a "firewall." And the department has now

added to its repertoire the more sensitive test that was used in England.

 

But the system does not work. There was that seven-month delay, in

addition to blunders that included a lack of written records, a

confusion among carcasses and the improper storage of brain tissue.

 

What is needed is something stricter and more comprehensive. The

Agriculture Department, and cattle ranchers generally, have been slow to

see that the only way to promote American beef is to guarantee its

safety - not by proudly eating it for lunch and living to tell about it,

but by testing a large majority of the national herd.

 

This new case has thrown cattle markets into confusion. Taiwan closed

its border to American cattle again, and Japan, which had been talking

about reopening its market to American beef, is not likely to do so

soon. Canadian ranchers say that since America now has mad cow cases,

there is no longer any reason to maintain strict limits on letting in

Canadian cattle.

 

There is only one answer to this mess. It is to create a national

identity system for all cattle so they can be tracked more easily and to

test them one by one until we know without a doubt the incidence of mad

cow disease.