Stupid fucking bastards

Yet more evidence that Americans are stupid fucking bastards: they process obviously sick animals for food before the test results are received:

The 4-year-old diseased dairy cow in Washington state [the one that tested positive for BSE] was slaughtered into ground beef for hamburger and also possibly sausage and pizza toppings, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

But all is not lost:

Some 10,000 pounds of raw meat linked to the animal and processed by Verns Moses Lake Meats in Washington was recalled.

That would be a voluntary recall, of course - because the US government cannot force a company to recall contaminated food. How do I know this? Because a while ago I read a book called Fast Food Nation, which has some truely scary stories about what goes on in US meat packing houses, and the complete lack of serious regulations surrounding them. Mechanical recovery, for example, which guarantees that material from the central nervous system (where BSE is found, and which according to US Department of Agriculture regulations must be totally removed from the animal and never fed to people) goes into your hamburger. The USDA hasn't banned it because it would cost meat companies US$200 million a year. Consumer safety? Let 'em sue!

This is a pefect example of what happens when you let an industry write its own regulations - safety goes out the window and consumers get screwed. What's worse is that there is a cult of patriotism surrounding US beef; the beef industry is already pulling out all the stops to get people to keep eating, and if their PR campaign fails, they can always fall back on legal threats. Twelve states have "food libel" laws outlawing questioning the safety of perishable goods (most notably Texas, where Oprah Winfrey was prosecuted for talking about BSE and saying that she had eaten her last hamburger); these will be a powerful disincentive to anyone pushing for a serious investigation or regulatory reform.

Oh, and the really scary bit: initial reports said that the cow in question was destined to be processed into animal feed. They still do this after what happened in Britain? Stupid fucking bastards indeed...