New Policies Might Prevent Mad Cow In USA
The wall to keep Mad Cow Disease out of America was erected somewhat higher last week. This week, the debate is whether that action resulted from a true concern by the soon-to-be outgoing Bush Administration about health or was it the required cave-in to get South Korea to once again import American beef.
The blog, OMB Watch, put it this way:
FDA's announcement came as a bit of a surprise since OMB seemed content to allow the
rule to languish under its review while the cattle industry continued to avoid further regulation. The turning point came at a meeting between U.S. and South Korean officials on trade. According to the Wall Street Journal, "South Korea last week agreed to lift restrictions on U.S. beef and, according to one U.S. government official, the country did so on the condition that the U.S. strengthen its livestock feed rules."
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) said the regulation first proposed in 2005, barring certain cattle materials from all animal feed, including pet food, protects animals and consumers against bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as "mad cow disease").
Some details from FDA:
The new measure builds on FDA's 1997 feed regulation, which prohibited the use of certain mammalian proteins in ruminant feed.
The materials that can no longer be used in animal feed are the tissues that have the highest risk for carrying the agent thought to cause BSE. These high risk cattle materials are the brains and spinal cords from cattle 30 months of age and older. The entire carcass of cattle not inspected and passed for human consumption is also prohibited, unless the cattle are less than 30 months of age, or the brains and spinal cords have been removed. The risk of BSE in cattle less than 30 months of age is considered to be exceedingly low.
The removal of high-risk materials from all animal feed will further protect against inadvertent transmission of the agent thought to cause BSE, which could occur through cross-contamination of ruminant feed (intended for animals with four-chambered stomachs, such as cattle) with non-ruminant feed or feed ingredients during manufacture and transport, or through misfeeding of non-ruminant feed to ruminants on the farm. The added measure of excluding high-risk materials from all animal feeds prevents any accidental feeding of such ingredients to cattle.
Today's regulation finalizes a proposed rule that the FDA issued for public comment in October 2005. The final rule is effective 12 months from today to allow the livestock, meat, rendering, and feed industries time to adapt their practices to comply with the new regulation. Under the new requirements of the final rule, renderers that process cattle not inspected and passed for human consumption must make available for FDA inspection their written protocols for determining the age of cattle and demonstrating that the brain and spinal cords of cattle have been effectively removed
OMB Watch's Matt Madia summed it up this way:
Nonetheless, it's a sad commentary that the Bush White House is more responsive to the concerns of the South Korean government (and the domestic producers who will benefit from increased exports) than to its own food safety agency or considerations of public health. The rule is fairly typical of Bush's cronyism approach to regulation: "Fight tooth-and-nail against government intervention, unless it would help out my buddies."
But bottom line, new policies are now in place that could prevent an outbreak of mad cow disease. The rule takes effect in April 2009
The FDA news release is here.
Mad cowed assemblymen.
WHO REPRESENTS KOREA?
The Korean people want to be free from the mad cow riots. It reminds Rousseau’s statement. “Man is born free, yet everywhere he is chains.” In this social condition, he proposed an idea of a representative government. So the citizens send their elected representatives to the parliament to present the voice of the people to find solutions for the problems.
Now in Korea, the government is a representative democratic system.
Under the present circumstances, the opposition parties are boycotting the assembly to prevent the opening of the new assembly. Thus, the opposition leaders are neglecting their own duties to represent the people. In other words, they abandoned their responsibilities as the representatives of the people. Outside the parliament, they do not have a legitimate voice or a forum. If they have a legitimate disagreement with the beef import issue, they should come to tell their opinion to the national assembly. They are just trying to paralyze the function of the government.
Thus, their very action is destructive and disqualifies their representation –A reverse course to the parliamentary system.
It is questionable if the government authority has the power to dismiss the disobedient opposition members. If so, it should oust them and let the people have a new election for their own true representation. Otherwise the society can not stand in peace under the status of “misgivings.” Needless to say KorUSFTA benefits.
BAN KI MOON, UN SECRETARY
Even if they have a disagreement with the beef imports, they should have convened the assembly even during the demonstrations.
More over, the national Assembly knew that UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon will visit Korea. They should have prepared in advance to receive him. Thus, UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon should have been respectably welcomed, as an international dignitary, and let him speak to the Assembly that represented the Korean people. But, they failed miserably as they violated their protocol in the occasion. Unfortunately, the UN secretary did not have a chance to speak proudly to his countrymen, Koreans, who were saved by the UN army. Thus, the Korean people scarred themselves, as if their representatives were ignorant derelicts. They seemed to have ignored their own status as the assemblymen. They just tried to snub the Lee Myung Bak government.
However, the opposition leaders actually snubbed themselves as if spitting into each other’s face. What a shameful action?
They misrepresented Koreans’ image to the world.
Koreans must know that South Korea was able to preserve its tiny territory because UN member nations sacrificed their lives to save South Korea from the communist aggressors.
But they missed the great opportunity to express the Korean gratitude to the Secretary who represents the member nations. Because of their misrepresentation, the Korean people be ashamed of themselves.
The Secretary is a proud Korean citizen. Thus, the Korean people are considered to be honored so much in the international scene because of his statue.
Imagine if these mobs had taken over the legitimate government in riots, what would happen to the people? Their suffering would be much worse than the mad cow ghosts can give.
GORBACHEV KIM
Remember the procommunist demonstrators that your mentor Kim Jong Il is evolving into Gorbachev Kim. You do not have any other place to go now but Myanmar or Zimbabwe. Korea should keep up its pace according to the change of East Asian political scene. The denuclearization is both US and our victory.
The opposition leaders and senseless demonstrators owe an apology to the nation. Especially, the undignified religious leaders should be ashamed of their not-so-saintly, subnormal spirituality, joining the senseless mad cow demonstrators against the very new government that you did not give even
a short period of honeymoon. Don’t you think you are cruelly mad cowed? – Think over! Where to go from here?
Wake up! Stay on the line of law and order! Eat beef; work harder, Korea will be beautiful for ever. It’s yours.