So this Mad Cow thing....does it mean that beef is bad?
Oh yeah, and Power to the People!

So a few months ago, someone sent me this link to an alternative reality called The Meatrix. Since then, I've been just a tad hesitant about the products I consume, wondering if they're really real or just real. Now, with Mad Cow on everyone's mind (ha ha! er, sorry), more and more people are thinking about the reality of the meat industry. (I don't know why, but what's really getting to me is the glycerin aspect.)

Anyway, the US Department of Agriculture is attempting to make some reforms to the current cutthroat meatpacking climate, including the following:

--> "Effectively immediately, USDA will ban all downer cattle from the human food chain. USDA will continue its BSE surveillance program."

--> "USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors will no longer mark cattle tested under the BSE surveillance program as “inspected and passed” until confirmation is received that the animals have, in fact, tested negative for BSE. This new policy will be in the form of an interpretive rule that will be published in the Federal Register. "

How comforting. Especially in the context of the following reaction quoted by Reuters Health Information correspondent Charles Abbot:
A meat industry official said the new restrictions might prompt slaughterhouses to refuse to accept downer cattle. That would impair USDA's mad-cow surveillance system, which relies on spotting suspect animals at slaughter.
"The practical reality is most plants will say 'no downers'," the meat official said.

Speaking of meatiness, memories of Upton Sinclair and that uplifting work of his, The Jungle, come rushing by. I remember finishing this book in high school and mentally declaring..."Yes, I am a progressive!". Then I read his World's End series (whew!) and decided that socialists were a bunch of pink pansies. Ich! Activists! Insert evil capitalist laugh here.