By Wylie Harris
Wichita Falls Times-Record News
January 6, 2004
In Our Opinions (“Don’t Have a Cow,” 30 Dec.), you wisely cautioned against panic over the U.S. debut of mad cow disease. The USDA agrees, having announced that it will order no additional inspections. And with McDonald’s and Wendy's reporting steady burger sales, U.S. consumers seem unconcerned. But the hamburger chains' stocks – and the prices I'll get for my cattle – have both taken a hit, and I share the concerns behind that. The disease has turned up in 23 other countries, but been limited to single cases in only four of those. We should channel the alarm over our first case into correcting the flaws in our concentrated meat production, packing, and inspection systems that caused it in the first place.
The FDA's ban on feeds containing tissue from ruminant animals – from which cattle get the disease – is enforced by inspecting feedlot records, rather than by testing the feed itself. Moreover, of the sick cattle slaughtered for beef in this country last year, no more than ten percent were tested for mad cow. It was extremely lucky that the case was detected at all, and also that the suspect meat didn't spread further. It reached 40 businesses in 8 states, from a small plant that packs 10,000 pounds a day. The 14 large plants that process 63 % of U.S. beef handle hundreds of times more. It's no wonder a recent study found antibiotic-resistant bacteria – another health risk bred in big feedlots and packing plants – in half of supermarket meats.
Assuming the inspection system stays broken, small cattle producers will be consumers' most reliable source of healthy beef. Nearly a third of the beef cattle in this country begin life in herds of less than 50 animals, raised mostly on pasture. If they're finished there, rather than shipped to a feedlot, they can't contract mad cow disease. Pasture-finishing also avoids feedlots' antibiotics and manure lagoons, while returning more of consumers' food dollar to the farmer. If all our beef were pasture-raised, we could forget mad cow disease – and our health, environment, and local economies would all benefit as well.