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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (33781)	12/29/2003 11:42:26 AM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

Eat meat, then. BUT, know what you're getting - pay a little more and buy organic - vegetarian-fed beef...because: In this country, the government agency with primary responsibility for preventing an outbreak of mad cow disease or its human variant, nvCJD, is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA in 1997 issued a rule declaring it illegal for farmers to feed animal protein from ruminants or mink to other ruminants --a preventive step that had been taken by the British government in 1988. Ruminants are animals that chew their cuds, including cattle, sheep, goats, deer and elk. Mink are included in the FDA's ban because they can get a TSE similar to mad cow disease. When cows, pigs, and chickens are slaughtered, much of the animal cannot be used for food and is sent to a rendering plant to be ground up, boiled down, dried to the consistency of brown sugar and sold as feed for cows, pigs, chickens, and pets. It is this rendered "animal protein" derived from ruminants (and mink) that FDA has banned from feeding to ruminants. The FDA's ruminant-to-ruminant ban still allows animal protein of all kinds to be fed to pigs and chickens, and it allows animal protein derived from pigs and chickens to be fed to ruminants. The FDA ban also allows blood and gelatin derived from ruminants to be fed to other ruminants. In the U.S., many newborn calves are fed a high-protein diet consisting mainly of dried blood Blood cells carry prions just as nerve cells do.[4]. A small group of scientists, led by Dr. Michael Hansen of Consumers Union, has challenged the adequacy of FDA's ruminant-to-ruminant rule.[5] They argue that the FDA ban does not go far enough, "does not adequately protect human health, and is not scientifically defensible."[6] Consumers Union is the publisher of CONSUMER REPORTS magazine.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (33781)	12/29/2003 12:05:19 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Respond to of 89467

Or you could eat kosher meat. Anyway, there is evidence of the human form of MCD in the US - monitor.net July 16, 1998: ...Hansen argues that CJD may be more prevalent in the U.S. population than is presently thought. The official figures say that CJD is exceptionally rare --one case in every million people. In the U.S. this would mean there are 250 CJD cases at any given time. Hansen points to two studies in which people diagnosed with Alzheimer's were examined after death. In one study, among 54 presumed Alzheimer's victims, 3 (or 5.5%) were found to actually have CJD.[13] A Yale University study of 46 victims of Alzheimer's found that 6 (or 13%) actually died of CJD, not Alzheimer's.[14] There are 2 million people with Alzheimer's in the U.S.[8] If 5.5% of them actually have CJD, there are 110,000 cases of CJD in the U.S., not 250 cases. If 13% of the 2 million have CJD, then there are 260,000 cases of CJD in the U.S., not 250. If even 1% of the 2 million had CJD, it would mean there was an epidemic of 20,000 cases of CJD masquerading as Alzheimer's. Thus the FDA's argument that CJD is very rare, and not increasing, needs to be re-examined.