Small Business. Big Business. Beef. And Bullsh*t.

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association

"Federal farm programs can influence, change and distort the price and supply of beef cattle. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association supports agricultural policy that is based on private enterprise, competitive markets and minimum government intervention. Government programs are sometimes necessary in disaster and emergency situations or to aid market access and expand information availability, but that is where it should end. NCBA encourages private enterprise in marketing and risk management as the alternative to government programs."

Our story continues....

UPI runs a story today finding that USDA's (and, by extension, Swift/Tyson/Smithfield/NCBA's) chief argument for opposing Creekstone Farms' bid to test 100% of it's herdstock is, appropriately enough, heavily laced with cow patty:

WASHINGTON, April 21 (UPI) -- A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture decision to block a private company from testing all its cattle under 30 months of age for mad cow disease runs contrary to its own records that show it has tested more than 2,000 animals in that age range, United Press International has learned.

The USDA rejected the Creekstone Farms testing plan on the grounds it was scientifically unsound. The Arkansas City, Kan., Black Angus beef producer wanted to test all its cattle for mad cow disease voluntarily so it could export its beef to Japan....

In announcing the decision to reject Creekstone's proposal, Bill Hawks, USDA's undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, said, "There is no scientific justification for 100 percent testing because the disease does not appear in younger animals" under the age of 30 months.

A more sound approach scientifically, Hawks said, would be USDA's expanded surveillance plan, which calls for testing 200,000 or more cows in U.S. herds that are 30 months of age or older.

Sampling from millions. Only in animals over 30 months. For a stealthy, volatile, "tipping-point" epidemic disease.

The department's mad cow testing records, however, which were obtained by UPI via the Freedom of Information Act, show over the past two years the agency tested 2,051 animals -- and possibly more -- that were under the age of 30 months.

The article goes on to somewhat clumsily detail a compromise solution crafted by USDA in conjunction with major packers such as Swift & Co., Tyson/IBP and Smithfield Foods. In this previous post and links, it was stated that the ostensible reason for all the wrangling over this issue is the implied "safety gap" between "premium" beef houses like Creekstone Farms and the more high volume, shall we say, less picky meat packers like Swift, Tyson and Smithfield. Oddly enough, the pilot 100% compliance program the big boys are endorsing, and the USDA is pushing for them, carries a tentative price tag of around $375 per tested head of cattle. Creekstone's state of the art program--read: more rigorous than USDA's--costs $18 per head. This reader, and others it seems, view this as a stalling tactic by more diversified (Pork, chicken) mega-packers in an attempt to stretch out the inevitable reasonable solution to the Japanese' complete ban on American beef without 100% testing.

Why? Because Tyson, Swift and cohorts can remain profitable on other meat products while the ban slowly chokes niche, regional and premium producers into bankruptcy. Agribusiness is using the thing it claims to hate--regulation--to winnow it's competition from the field. And they've gotten USDA to herd players like Creekstone to the kill-floor.

Larry Bohlen of Friends of the Earth, an environmental advocacy group in Washington [said] the USDA "offered a puny compromise to test older cattle for Creekstone farms when the agency itself has been testing some younger cattle for the last 2 years,"

Bohlen was referring to a compromise the agency offered Creekstone to test an unspecified number of its animals older than 30 months at USDA-approved labs. Creekstone rejected the deal because it has invested $500,000 in building a state-of-the-art testing facility and nearly all of its animals are under that age at the time of slaughter.

Bill Fielding, Creekstone's chief operating officer, said he would not classify USDA's offer as a compromise because it did not address the issues of concern to the company.

"As the USDA is aware, only about 1 percent of our animals are over 30 months, so testing them does nothing for our business and is not what our customers are asking for," Fielding told UPI.

Here, USDA walks into the grinder itself: Japanese health authorities have detected mad cow disease in animals less than 20 months old. They believe, and research supports, that it's only a matter of time--aided by a lax sampling system, rather than 100% testing--before it regresses down the maturity scale. They don't trust luck when it comes to Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis, the cause of variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, a fatal human brain disorder. Perhaps USDA has a hard time with Japanese Scientific Peer journals, what with all those squiggly characters n stuff:

USDA spokeswoman Alisa Harrison told UPI the agency's rationale for prohibiting Creekstone from testing younger animals is "the scientific evidence is there that you can't find it (mad cow disease) in animals under 30 months."

Asked why the agency tested thousands of animals under that age, Harrison replied, "I don't know."

It could be the animals were showing severe signs of central nervous system disorders -- a possible indication of mad cow disease -- or perhaps there was some "confusion on the age of the animals," she said. "I'm sure there's a good reason."

Harrison said she would look into the agency's rationale for testing the young animals and including them in official statistics, but she did not respond by presstime.

Bill Bullard, chief executive officer of R-CALF USA, a non-profit association in Billings, Mont., which represents independent ranchers, noted a 3-month-old cow looks like a calf, so it is unlikely animals in this age range were confused for 30-month old adults....

The USDA is just plain wrong in deciding against Creekstone," Bullard said. "I think their argument is extremely weak and unfortunately it is damaging the industry."

Bullard and Fielding said they know of other companies that would like to emulate Creekstone's plan and test all their cattle as a way of tapping into the export market. Creekstone plans to appeal USDA's decision, and the other companies may come forward as the debate continues, they said.

I'll try the Creekstone Filet, Pittsburg, Sour Cream and plenty of Horseradish.