I had to read this one several times to make sure I wasn’t confused. At first, it seemed as if the Bush administration would fight voluntary tests on food safety. I thought, “That can’t be right.”
And yet, it is.
The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.
The Agriculture Department tests less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. But Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows.
Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too.
The Agriculture Department regulates the test and argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry.
This is just bizarre. In this case, a business wants to go above and beyond what’s required by law, and test all of its cows for mad cow disease. The Bush administration won’t allow it.
What’s more, a federal judge ruled a couple of months ago that these voluntary industry tests must be allowed, and the ruling was set to take effect on Friday, prompting the Agriculture Department to announce today that it would appeal the ruling. In the interim, Creekstone can’t do the tests it wants to guarantee food safety.
Bush administration officials couldn’t possibly be that afraid of “false positives.” Shouldn’t public health be the greater concern?
Rick Perlstein, as he is prone to do, summarized this nicely in the latest edition of his “E. coli conservatism” series.
First, observe the contempt for liberty. When E. coli conservatives say self-regulation is preferable to government, they’re even lying about that. Second, observe the contempt for small business. When a small company want to – voluntarily! – hold its product to a higher standard, the government blocks it, in part because bigger companies have to be protected from the competition, in part because a theoretical threat to the bottom line (false positives) trumps protection against a deadly disease.
There’s your conservatism, America: not extremism in defense of liberty. State socialism in defense of Mad Cow.
The mind reels.
Update: Perlstein adds a helpful game of “what if?”
The AP reports that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a new policy on Mad Cow disease, based on the following concern: “Arkansas City-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows. Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too.”
Let’s have some fun and pretend what the world would be like if other people thought like the Bush administration thinks: “Chicago-based singles-bar habitué Lewis P. Smith wants to get an AIDS test. More successful Chicago studs fear that move because, if Smith gets tested and advertises his sperm as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too.”
Well said.