Mad Cow Testing...or "Why We DON'T eat Beef"

A few years ago (8? 9?) we became a no-beef household. We just don't eat it. Primarily because of problems with "downer cattle" and Mad Cow Disease, and the glaring and willful incompetence of the FDA and its refusal to acknowledge the issue. And after reading this article, my decision is reaffirmed. Unless I know the farmer and the cow that I'm eating, there is NO WAY that potentially disease-ridden garbage is going to pass my lips or be fed to my children! (Hmmmm... does that mean that beef farmers/ranchers are going to sue me now, like Oprah? Where's Dr. Phil?!) 

Let's review the facts, shall we? Mad Cow Disease is fatal. If a human being acquires the disease, that person will eventually have a brain that resembles swiss cheese more than gray matter. The USDA currently tests 1% of US beef, because of the "low incidence" (their words, not mine) of Mad Cow. Hmmmm... the low incidence wouldn't have anything to do with the miniscule testing, would it? It's kinda hard to find something that you're purposefully not looking for. 

And that brings me to my next joke - GMO labeling. Currently, the European Union requires labeling of all agricultural products that contain genetically modified organisms. Why don't we require it here in the US? Because the Government has decided for us Little Folks that it's perfectly safe to throw GMOs into our food, so why should we worry? Uncle Sam is watching out for us, keeping all those big, complicated, scary thoughts at bay, so that agribusiness can go on as usual, making its monster profits, and poisoning our planet in the process. WTG, lobbyists! High five on hoodwinking the American public! 

What ever happened to the idea of a free market? Let the consumer decide whether or not she wants to buy the GMO corn or not. Good grief. Sometimes I feel like the only sane person in an asylum. 

There are so many things that are just so wrong, all around us. The environment, the food we eat, the screwy welfare system, abortion, circumcision, healthcare, vaccines, education, (not so) free trade, rampant consumerism, the media's sexualization of children, oy vey! The list goes on and on. I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I'm so darn tired of people looking at me like I'm nuts because I actually care about doing my little part to fix things. Folks look at me like I have a third eye because I refuse to just numbly nod my head and blankly smile when faced with idiocy. I don't stick my head in the sand and pretend that I don't know what I know - when I see something wrong, darn it, I'm going to say it's wrong! I can't be a lemming, jumping off a cliff because it makes people around me comfortable.