don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Last week, I offered a wellness take on Mad Cow disease and related concerns about beef industry practices--and wondered if perhaps the industry might somehow be trying to convert us to vegetarianism! I was kidding, of course. They want you to eat MORE meat, not less. Maybe you should, maybe not--each of us has to make that choice. However, it's always a good idea to have pertinent information when pondering choices, such as more insights on the production process, the nature of mad cow disease and so on.

The pathogen, amoeba or space alien that gets into the brain tissue of animals and causes mad cow disaster is just one of several brain diseases known as "spongiform encephalopathies." Whatever it is, it is considered "practically indestructible." Thus, if you have to go to a bit of extra trouble to avoid this horror, or even give up something for a while (or forever) to boost your chances of staying safe, it might be prudent to consider doing so.

A series of articles in recent weeks shed light on the only process known to MAYBE destroy prions, the agent in mad cow. Disposal of cow carcasses is an interesting process. The carcasses are loaded into "tissue digestors," large vats of lye where they are cooked at 300 degrees Fahrenheit. It takes from six to eight hours to liquefy a 1,500-pound cow and destroy prions--if it's done right. Even so, there remains 76 pounds of bone and teeth, which are crumbled into bone-meal powder, by hand--human hands. I'm not saying this is unpleasant work, since I have not seen it done up close and personal, but I'm willing to guess that these entry-level bone-meal crumbler jobs are not held by college graduates with a wide range of career options.

Still interested in hamburger? Prime rib?

An official of the company that makes tissue digestors (there are about 40 in the U.S.) said the end result "does not smell too bad." He added: "Compared with meat processing or rendering, it's a breath of fresh air." Well, it seems to me most things would smell like fresh air after a whiff of that stuff. If I went weeks without a bath, I'd smell like roses, too, compared with a meat processing plant.

Did you know that as many as 150,000 downer cattle (livestock unable to walk to slaughter due to injury or illness) have been sold annually for human consumption? (Source: NY Times, "Mad Cow Forces Beef Industry to Change Course," January 5, 2004). This practice helped cattlemen for a while, but has come back to haunt them now that consumer confidence in beef has plummeted. In fact, food safety advocates concerned about downers being disease carriers tried to stop the practice. Unfortunately, beef industry lobbyists managed to stave off attempts by Congress until the current mad cow scare led Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman to ban the practice two weeks ago! The Secretary also imposed further regulation on the above-described recycling process. One Congressman remarked, "They (cattle industry in reference to downer cattle) played a high-risk, high-stakes game, and they lost their bet. Now the perception among millions of people is that this product isn't safe, and they can't put Humpty Dumpty back together again." In the past month, the price of cattle has dropped 20 percent and the $3.6 billion export market evaporated.

Should you be squeamish about cow products? Maybe not, since they are kind of hard to avoid. Like Michael Jackson fans, cow parts are everywhere. According to that fashionable coffee table book "Scientific Farm Animal Production," one cowhide can yield 144 baseballs, 20 footballs, 18 soccer balls or 12 basketballs. " Cow heads, meat, organs, blood, hide, feet and fluids are not used just in sports equipment and food for humans and pets, but in animal feed, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and other industrial uses-including concrete (bone meal is added to cement as an adhering agent).

Oh well, look on the bright side. Be well.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the PHYSICAL DOMAIN under the skill area of nutrition. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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