The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.
The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. A beef producer in the western state of Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wants to test all of its cows.
Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone should test its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive tests on their larger herds as well.
The Agriculture Department regulates the test and argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry.
A federal judge ruled in March that such tests must be allowed. U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that Creekstone sought to use the same test the government relies on and said the government didn’t have the authority to restrict it. - A federal judge ruled in March that such tests must be allowed. The ruling was scheduled to take effect June 1, but the Agriculture Department said Tuesday it would appeal, effectively delaying the testing until the court.
So here’s what we’ve got: A smaller meat packing plant wants to gain a market edge of it’s larger competitors, who can no doubt beat it on price, by being able to brag about how well-inspect it’s product is. The larger companies don’t want their smaller competitor to have that edge, and don’t want to go through the expense of applying such high standards to their own product, so they get the government to step in on their behalf to protect their current business model and deny the public access to a better product.
And the allegedly “conservative” Bush administration is going along with it.
This sort of rank protectionism has nothing to do with conservatism, or the principles the Republican party is supposed to stand for. President Bush should be ashamed of himself.