MAD COW DISEASE'S SILVER LINING

I haven't had any since October (meat, that is), and now I'm sorta glad. The first-ever case of mad cow disease in the United States was identified yesterday in a single cow in Washington state. While final laboratory confirmation will take a few more days, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture says that sheís confident that preliminary testing is reliable. At the same time, she insisted that the American food supply is safe (adding that she will even be eating beef at herself at her holiday dinner later this week). But given the enormous impact of Mad Cow Disease outbreaks in Europe and Asia, there is a pretty legitimate concern today that the U.S. beef industry and its related industries could be devastated by this development. (Japan and South Korea, which last year imported over $840 million and $620 million worth of U.S. beef respectively, have already announced that they will ban all U.S. beef, and shares of McDonald's Holdings stock are already down.)

Despite the possible long-term losses to livestock and livelihood, I can't help but wonder if thereís a silver lining. How many people die each year as a result of poor diets that are heavily dependant on beef. I honestly don't know, but if the Mad Cow situation gets just a few hundred thousand people to change their eating habits, perhaps it'll have been worth it.

I think fears on contracting the human variety of Mad Cow through tainted meat are overblown. I fear what the hysteria will do to our beef industry, but I don't fear illness. However, this may be the shot in the arm that Americans need to switch to a bison diet. Bison is the healthiest red meat alternative for our bodies and environment. Ted Turner should be buying airtime on every major network and swaying the public to buy the 'organic' and healthy alternative.

I completely agree, Mikal. This country is way too dependent not just on beef, but on all animal meat products. Although I am not vegetarian, I have been eating significantly less meat, esp. beef, for the last several years. This latest mad cow thing in the US affirms that decision. For me, it started as a "thoughtfulness" gesture. And I don't mean being kind by letting the person with 1 item go ahead of you in line. I mean being thoughtful about where every speck and morsel of food that goes into my body comes from and everything that has gone into its making. All the resouces and energy that are required for a plant's growth, and the life given up by an animal that allows me to sit at the table and eat its body. I think if Americans tried to cultivate this way of thinking and thankfulness, there might be less obesity.

Meat is safe? Thatís a good joke! Meat promotes health? Thatís an advertisement from industry. If you think meat is safe, consider the following:

What animal products do to people:
Promote--
Cancer
Heart attacks
High blood pressure
High cholesterol
Strokes
Arthritis
Bursitis
Osteoporosis
Flu
Obesity
E-coli
Mad Cow (BSE)
Salmonella
Allergies
Acid Reflux
Cellulite
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Diabetes
Headaches
Graves Disease
Cirrhosis
Diarrhea
Anemia
Insomnia
Dementia and other mental problems
Emotional problems
Increase costs related to medical care
Increase taxes to aid poor people who come down with medical problems

What animal products do to the environment:
Use up massive supplies of fresh water. (ex. 5000 gallons to make one pound of beef). Lake Ogallala, an underground reservoir larger than Huron that took millions of years to form shall be dry in 2 to 3 generations in order to irrigate crops to feed to live stock.
Use up massive amounts of land to grow grain. (80% of the grain grown is fed to livestock)
Manure pollutes the land and the water with nitrates and pesticides with other poisons. (livestock in the US outweighs people by 5 to 1)
Pollution from nitrates kills off other wildlife that keeps the Earth in balance.
Clear cutting of rainforests in order to graze cattle.
Stripping away of top soil so that neither grains nor trees can grow in some areas.
Using up energy including fossil fuels in order to transport and refrigerate animal products.

Neither list is by any means complete!

Meat is safe? Thatís a good joke! Meat promotes health? Thatís an advertisement from industry. If you think meat is safe, consider the following:

What animal products do to people:
Promote--
Cancer
Heart attacks
High blood pressure
High cholesterol
Strokes
Arthritis
Bursitis
Osteoporosis
Flu
Obesity
E-coli
Mad Cow (BSE)
Salmonella
Allergies
Acid Reflux
Cellulite
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Diabetes
Headaches
Graves Disease
Cirrhosis
Diarrhea
Anemia
Insomnia
Dementia and other mental problems
Emotional problems
Increase costs related to medical care
Increase taxes to aid poor people who come down with medical problems

What animal products do to the environment:
Use up massive supplies of fresh water. (ex. 5000 gallons to make one pound of beef). Lake Ogallala, an underground reservoir larger than Huron that took millions of years to form shall be dry in 2 to 3 generations in order to irrigate crops to feed to live stock.
Use up massive amounts of land to grow grain. (80% of the grain grown is fed to livestock)
Manure pollutes the land and the water with nitrates and pesticides with other poisons. (livestock in the US outweighs people by 5 to 1)
Pollution from nitrates kills off other wildlife that keeps the Earth in balance.
Clear cutting of rainforests in order to graze cattle.
Stripping away of top soil so that neither grains nor trees can grow in some areas.
Using up energy including fossil fuels in order to transport and refrigerate animal products.

Neither list is by any means complete!