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MARCH APRIL 2004 - OMNI PRESENCE JOURNAL - PAGE 9
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Mad Cow Disease can be contracted via ingestion of contaminated meat, but, according to current studies, it also spontaneously occurs, on its own, in roughly one out of a million cows. Given the fact that the U.S. beef industry slaughtered nearly 400 million cows in the last ten years, statistically speaking, that should add up to an expected minimum of 400 spontaneous Mad Cow cases inside U.S. borders.
Since the USDA only tests roughly one out of every 2,000 animals, only one case has been discovered so far, while the others have slipped through--- possibly into the human food supply. Of course, that's just counting the spontaneous occurrences of the disease. In addition to the spontaneous cases, there are an unknown number of cows infected with the disease by other cows. This has gone undetected, as well. The incubation period of the disease is three to eight years, so the detection of one animal with the disease suggests the strong likelihood that other cows were infected by the same source but haven't been found yet. A 1997 FDA memorandum predicted that if just one case of Mad Cow Disease was found in the U.S. and a total ban on feeding animal protein to animals was implemented, it's still possible that as many as 300,000 infected cows would be found over the period of the disease's incubation period (three to eight years). In short, due to scant USDA testing, no one knows how many infected animals have already entered the human food supply.
http://organicconsumers.org/madcow.htm
WHAT IT DOES TO A HUMAN
When a human contracts this fatal neurological disease, either spontaneously or via eating infected meat, it is referred to as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). There are roughly 300 new human cases of CJD in the U.S. every year. The percentage of those cases that are caused by undetected contamination in the food supply is unknown. Early symptoms of the disease include escalating neurological and muscular symptoms, including confusion, depression, behavioral changes and impaired vision and coordination. As the disease progresses, the symptoms worsen. The disease is incurable and always fatal.
BREAKING NEWS:
HUMAN LIFE MAY BE WORTH
AS MUCH AS A NICKLE!
Although the U.S. banned beef imports and frowned upon the UK when Mad Cow Disease related CJD began to take the lives of British citizens, recently revealed documents show little has been done to protect U.S. Consumers from similar outbreaks within our own borders. In fact, internal USDA papers dating back to 1991 show that the U.S. government (and related lobbyists) have been basing food safety related decisions on corporate profit margins over human health. Specifically, the USDA refused precautionary measures that would mitigate the possible outbreak of Mad Cow Disease, stating that "the cost to the livestock and rendering industries would be substantial." This assessment may be true, depending on what the price of human life is. Indeed, the cost of testing all cattle for this fatal disease would add 3 to 5 pennies per pound to the price of beef.
Reference: Rampton, S and J. Stauber. Mad Cow USA Common Courage Press; http://prwatch.org/books/madcow.html
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ORGANIC CONSUMERS
ASSOCIATION -
6101 Cliff Estate Road - Little Marais, MN. 55614
Phone: (218) 226-4164 - Fax: (218) 353-7652
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Thanks to a massive marketing blitz (funded by scarce taxpayer money) the U.S. Government has been working overtime to alleviate the public's concerns about Mad Cow Disease and its human counterpart Creutzfeldt Jacob Disease (CJD). Consumers no longer know who to trust. Regardless, experts on all sides of the political spectrum agree with one basic fact: the two diseases are undeniably connected. In both cases, aberrant proteins, known as prions, begin to multiply and literally cause holes in the brain, ultimately leading to death.
According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, hundreds of CJD human fatalities have been occurring in the U.S. every year, but until now, they have simply been written off as unexplainable and spontaneous cases. At the same time, it is well known that ingesting meat contaminated with these prions causes the same fatal reaction to occur in the human body. Based on that basic understanding, coupled with the fact that the vast majority of U.S. cattle are never tested for Mad Cow Disease, scientists like Dr. Michael Greger, a world renowned expert on the issue, and dozens of research institutions around the world are now linking these deaths to the food supply.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/GregerCJD.cfm
WHO DO YOU TRUST?
The Bush Administration gave the USDA Secretary of Agriculture position to Anne Venemon (who once served on Monsanto's Calgene Board of Directors). She appointed Dale Moore as her Chief of Staff. Prior to playing his new role of "protecting" consumers from food safety threats like Mad Cow Disease, Dale Moore was the chief lobbyist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Assn. Source:
http://www.usda.gov/agencies/gallery/moore.htm
MAD COW ECONOMICS 101
Thanks to Mad Cow Disease, the U.S. beef industry is facing an economic crisis. Within 24 hours of discovering Mad Cow Disease in the U.S., More than a dozen nations banned imports of American beef, including the U.S.'s biggest overseas customers Japan and Mexico. It is likely more nations will ban imports in the coming days. The U.S. beef industry will likely lose the vast majority of the $2.6 billion worth of beef products exported last year.
http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/export122503.cfm
MILLIONS OF CONSUMERS UNITE!
Last year, while the E.U. tested 10 million cattle for Mad Cow, the U.S. only tested 20,526 cows out of 35 million slaughtered. In response to this threat to food safety and consumer rights, the OCA has launched a massive campaign to pressure the USDA into creating standards that emulate those of Japan and the EU. Every day, thousands of citizens are signing on to this important petition.
Help the OCA in achieving its goal of gathering over a million petition signatures, demanding that the U.S. Government adopt and enforce:
~ Mandatory testing for all cattle brought to slaughter, before they enter the food chain.
~ Ban the feeding of blood, manure, and slaughterhouse waste to animals.
Please forward this email to family and friends!
Sign the petition here:
http://organicconsumers.org/madcow.htm
Printed with permission of Organic Consmers Organization
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