USDA announces biggest beef recall ever

On Sunday, Feb. 17, the United States Department of Agriculture announced the biggest beef recall in the country's history, according to the LA Times. More than 143 million pounds of beef from a Chino slaughterhouse called Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company has been recalled. The company has been suspended and the product recalled has been produced in the last two years.
The health concerns are surrounded mostly by video, leaked from the Humane Society, showing workers using forklifts pushing and rolling over cows.
But is the video of just inhumane treatment or a depiction of cows too weak to even stand up?
After all why would they need to use forklifts? Could the cows have been injured in some way and the heavy animals couldn't walk?
These cows, commonly termed as downing cows, could have been affected by what is called mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
While the USDA would have us believe that the affects on humans eating this meat are minimal, it is only a public relations veil to the fact that the department didn't catch these problems earlier. According to fast food chains and restaurants, many have stopped serving the meat from the company earlier this month when violations were discovered.
But if there is no substantial health risk to the public, according to USDA officials, and the shutting down of Westland was mainly an issue of inhumane treatment, then why the recall?
What the LA Times article does not mention is what causes mad cow disease.
BSE has an incubation period of about four years, and is caused by a folding protein that eventually deteriorates the brain. Some believe the disease could be transmitted to humans who then eat the meat from dead carcasses. This was common last year in 2007 when a wide spread amount of people died in Britain from a disease related to BSE.
What's more, is that the folding protein is possibly caused by protein supplements and hormones fed to the cows. In the past in the UK, meat manufacturing companies have used chopped up bi-products as supplemental proteins in the vegetarian feeds. Basically, the companies were picking up dead diseased leftovers from the ground and then feeding it back to the cows.
How disgusting!!!
The United States put a ban on this practice a couple of years ago, and according to the USDA there has been a complete 100 percent containment. In recent yeats, Washington State found one cow with the disease.
"Got Milk?"
But many companies in the United States still use meal with soya bean, commonly because it’s cheap. Soy often can contribute to hormonal dysfunctions as well, even in humans who drink milk, and some dispute the frequency the USDA checks each manufacturing company.
The meat packing industry all over the United States is outpouring with public relations statements such as the Idaho Meat Council, claiming the event is only about inhumane treatment> http://www.idbeef.org/just_the_facts.htm
"So, where's the beef?"
Nevertheless, whether these cows were infected with BSE is unknown because the meat has already been served up to our school children and population. That's a good way to get rid of evidence.
How much meat is still out there because of processing methods is also unknown.
And unknown is how many company's all over the country and the world currently serve infected and diseased animal products on a daily basis.