Skinny Bitch Bun in the Oven by Rory Freedman

Author:Rory Freedman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Running Press

USDA

Tsk, tsk, George W. Bush. Tsk, tsk. But your friends at the USDA aren’t much better. According to the watchdog group Organic Consumers Association, “Lester Friedlander, a former USDA veterinarian, says he was told by USDA officials as far back as 1991 that if his testing ever found evidence of mad cow disease, he was to tell no one. He and other scientists say they know of cases where cows tested positive for the disease in laboratories but were ruled negative by the USDA.”333 Maybe that’s why the USDA currently tests less than one-tenth of one percent of cows for mad cow disease.

When a Kansas-based meatpacking company decided to test all its animals for the disease, the USDA threatened to prosecute.334 Huh? It wasn’t going to cost the USDA a dime—it would be done at the company’s own expense. And the primary function of the USDA is to keep our food safe. So why in the hell would they want to stop a meatpacking company from testing its animals for mad cow disease? Well, for starters, many high-ranking officials at the USDA have direct ties with the meat and dairy industries—the industries they’re supposed to be protecting us from! The USDA Agriculture Secretary from January 2001 until January 2005 not only had ties with Monsanto, the company responsible for producing the controversial bovine growth hormone (BGH), but she was also linked to a major meatpacking corporation.335

The buck doesn’t stop there. She employed a spokeswoman who was the former public relations director for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, a chief of staff who used to be its head lobbyist, a former president of the National Pork Producers Council, and former executives from the meatpacking industry, to name a few!336 Um, hello? Conflict of interest! No wonder staffers at the USDA fought against private testing for mad cow disease—they didn’t want to anger their buddies in the meatpacking industry. Or, according to one watchdog group, “The USDA obviously doesn’t want the private sector to start testing for mad cow disease in the USA, because they know the disease is here, and it is spreading.”337 That’s possible. Or, perhaps they know if private meatpacking companies start testing all their animals, no one will want to buy USDA meat anymore. Translation: “If other companies start testing, our farmers have to start testing. And that’s going to cost money.” Either way, it’s downright sinister. Thankfully, the judge ruled in favor of the meatpacking company.338

But judges aren’t always around. In 1990, Congress passed legislation to create the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), a group that would develop and oversee organic standards. In order to create a balanced Board, federal law mandated that it must be comprised of four farmers, three environmentalists, three consumer advocates, two handlers/ processors, one certifying agent, one retailer, and one scientist. Great. All fair. But in 2005, the USDA handed over a consumer advocate seat to a consultant for the dairy industry,339 a scientist seat went to a manager at General Mills,

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