“It’s a terrible thing that a whole nation’s industry can be brought to its knees by one old animal that comes down with this [Mad Cow] disease that doesn’t really mean much in the scheme of things any more,” Michael Hartmann, deputy director of Cattle Council of Australia, said.

Reuters | Link

Mr Hartmann: One sick cow killed people in the UK. One sick cow can kill people here and in the USA. The real question is, why are US (and maybe Australian) farmers feeding cows mushed-up dead animals when cow DNA says they should eat grass? And why did the USDA take 9 months to alert people about the diseased animal?

You defend the indefensible, in a misguided belief that the beef market is more important than the people who eat it — your customers.

I enjoy eating red meat, but I wouldn’t go near a cow or any other herbivore if I knew they’d been penned and fed on a diet antibiotics and ground-up animals parts.

Thank goodness most Aussie cows are pasture fed.

Get a conscience Hartmann!

A third and more sophisticated test on the beef cow suspected of having mad cow disease would have helped resolve conflicting results from two initial screenings, but the US refused to perform it in November.

Daily News Central | Link

Japan might call it shaky. I’d call it downright dodgy, especially after the USDA was soundly criticized for initially clearing an animal last November with Mad Cow disease.

Members of the Japanese Food Safety Commission, who are tasked with discussing (whether US beef is safe to import), voiced their mistrust for the United States, saying the steps that the United States has taken to confirm the case were not transparent.

ABC News | Link

Last November, the USDA found a suspect cow — a reasonably serious matter for people who eat US meat. It’s now June 25 and we have just been told the animal tested positive for Mad Cow Disease.

These new tests have confirmed that the Texas animal that federal officials earlier declared to be free of mad cow disease did have the brain-wasting ailment, the U.S. Agriculture Department announced yesterday.

The definitive testing, done in England over the past two weeks, showed that the ailing animal, first flagged as suspicious in November, was infected with mad cow disease.

USDA has been criticized for initially clearing the animal of the disease.

Well, I suppose that sorts them out.

22 member states today rejected proposals to lift national bans on GMO crop. We were able to give a clear message to the European Commission,? Luxembourg Environment Minister Lucien Lux told a news conference.

EU environment ministers dealt a blow to USA efforts to get more GMO crops grown in Europe when they agreed to uphold eight national bans on genetically modified maize and rapeseed types.

Hopefully Australia and New Zealand will also follow suit.

Good news from the US Food and Drug Administration. Americans will soon be able to choose meat and milk from cloned farm animals at their local supermarkets. The FDA announced that it is about to declared these products safe for human consumption.

A favourable risk assessment from the FDA, one of the world’s most powerful regulatory bodies, is expected to start the commercial exploitation of cloning to improve livestock quality around the world.

Maybe it’s time to become a vegetarian. Pity, I hate green things…

The Washington Post | Link

For men with low sperm counts, sexual abstinence ? but only for a day ? increases semen quality. More prolonged sexual abstinence may actually reduce sperm numbers, a new study indicates.

Does that mean that having sex every day might be an effective form of contraception?

Reuters | Link