U.S. fights to keep U.S. meatpackers FROM testing all slaughtered cattle

"WASHINGTON: The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease"I found this one incredibly insane. Apparently, the Department of Agriculture wants to restrict the a company from testing all of its animals for mad cow disease. A judge ruled earlier that they had ever right too, but the Department of Agriculture continues to delay them because they supposedly believe that such testing could lead to a false positive and cause a panic. At the same time there is also the issue that larger producers may be forced to test their entire larger herds to if this company advertised its meat as being completely safe.Here's my problem with this. That judge was right - There is no reason why a company should not be allowed to test all of its meat. If they are that concerned with their consumer's safety, that's great. That's their decision to make, and a bigger problem for them should they have a false positive. Secondly the argument that the other companies would have to test their meat too is completely messed up. Our government wasn't put in place to protect big business. It was put in place to serve the people. That is why the government should really be supporting this smaller company in its efforts to protect the rest of us.Personally, I'm not all that concerned about Mad Cow Disease. There are many other things that I consider larger risks. The fact that the a government agency is putting the welfare of a few large companies above the welfare of the people concerns me hugely.



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