There's a story in USA today describing how a small Kansas beef producer is
not allowed to test for mad cow.
This passage makes my brain explode:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture -- invoking an obscure 1913 law intended to thwart con artists from peddling bogus hog cholera serum to pig farmers -- is blocking companies from selling the testing kits to Creekstone.
USDA is doing the bidding of large cattle barons afraid that Creekstone's marketing will force them to do the same tests to stay competitive. It's true that the incidence of mad cow disease is quite low. But there's little logic in stopping a company from exceeding regulations to meet the demands of its customers, or protecting its rivals from legitimate competition.
Not only is USDA blocking Creekstone, the department said last month that it's reducing its mad cow testing program by 90%. The industry and its sympathetic regulators seem to believe that the problem isn't mad cow disease. It's tests that find mad cow.
What kind of backwards policy is this? It seems like another example of when large corporate interests trump those of the consumer to the detriment of health. That is really not okay.
Of course there's the whole second level to this, which is that small business is prevented from competing and innovating effectively in relation to large corporations under the protection of the federal government.
I haven't the presence of mind for more words on this subject. It's disgusting.
Update: Apparently this is a six-month old story, diared previously by Soj. The story in USA Today is recent, however.