Let 'Em Eat Steak!

What a bizarre time we live in. Once, long ago, we actually had a government that cared for the welfare of its citizens and an array of agencies were created to prevent businesses from endangering the public health (USDA, FDA, EPA, etc.). These were in response to bad business practices of the day that occurred due to lack of oversight or regulation. Well, those days seem to be over. Yes, the agencies are still around but are only a shell of what they once were. The only concern that they all seem to have is the interests of the industries that they are supposed to regulate. The latest in a long line of cases involves the testing of meat for mad cow disease. A company in Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wanted to test its cows for the presence of Mad Cow Disease. The larger meat packers, fearing that they too would have to perform the test, strongly opposed the idea due to the costs involved. It seems that the US Agriculture Department agrees with the large meat packers and has appealed an earlier ruling by a federal judge who stated that the voluntary testing must be allowed. The ruling was to take effect on June 1. Read the article here and tell me if you think that this in the interest of the public at large. If this is the best that we can expect from these agencies today, whether it be beef testing or melamine tainted food and pet products, we as a society are in big trouble. Quarterly earnings, stock prices, 'bottom lines'--they become meaningless if we must live in an unregulated pool of poisons and toxins in our own food supply chain. After all, humans that we are, we still have to eat and drink.