Report: USDA Tried To Derail BSE Tests Of Infected Cow

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The Washington Post reported last week that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) “overruled field scientists’ recommendation to retest an animal that was suspected of harboring mad cow disease last year because they feared a positive finding would undermine confidence in the agency’s testing procedures, the department’s inspector general said yesterday.

“After protests from the inspector general, the specimen was sent to England for retesting and produced the nation’s second confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease.”

The Post report was based on an internal USDA audit designed top evaluate the agency’s performance in dealing with mad cow disease.

According to the Post story, “scientists at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories concluded that a sample from a Texas animal should be tested with other techniques following initial inconclusive findings,” but that “top officials at the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) told them not to do the additional tests.

“When officials from the inspector general’s office met with the head of APHIS, they were told that the protocol followed by the agency was the international ‘gold standard’ and nothing more was needed, the report adds. Nonetheless, the sample was later sent to England for a different set of tests and was found to have the mad cow infection.”

It gets worse. “The report also found that although there was no evidence that infected meat had made it into the human food chain, the USDA surveillance system did not collect the information needed to say whether slaughterhouses were following all mad cow-related regulations,” the Post writes.

USDA food safety administrator Barbara J. Masters released a statement saying that “officials have taken steps to better enforce the rules and have reached agreement with the inspector general on most issues. ‘FSIS is confident it is successfully carrying out its mission to protect public health by strictly enforcing safeguards,’ she said.

This is the same Barbara Masters who told MNB recently (in a video interview done for the just-completed CIES International Food Safety Conference):

“To get to the issue of testing our sister agency who we work closely with, the Animal, Plant Health Inspection Service is the agency responsible for our surveillance program on BSE and I would say that they have done a very outstanding job of the surveillance program for BSE in the United States. And they have tested well over 400,000 samples here in the United States over the last 18 months or so looking for BSE in the United States and they have done an incredible job of finding those animals most at risk for BSE in the United States. And through that testing process I think you’re well aware that here in the United States we have found two animals with BSE. And so I think the criticism has decreased here in the United States because of the enhanced surveillance program and the robust system that our sister agency put in place to ensure that we’re testing all regions of the country and all parts of the country with this very enhanced surveillance program put in place by our sister agency.”
 

KC’s View: We cannot even begin to suggest the outrage we feel at reading the Post story. Somebody ought to get fired…in fact, there are a whole bunch of people who probably should be exiled from ever having a position of public trust again.

Gold standard of testing protocols? Not likely. In fact, probably not even close.

This is the best reason that the food industry has to step up and get aggressive on this issue. Don’t trust the government, because it isn’t worried about your customers. And in the end, they are your customers…so you have to look out for them.

Barbara Masters may be confident that the agency “is successfully carrying out its mission to protect public health by strictly enforcing safeguards.” But she’s full of it.

By the way, based on our interview with her, we’re fairly confident that she doesn’t even believe it – she seems best at parroting agency talking points, not engaging in any sort of real discussion or debate.

Not only does this suggest that some of the folks at USDA were more concerned with covering their own butts than preserving the safety of the consumers and taxpayers who pay their salaries and who trust them, but also that there is absolutely no reason they should have any credibility on any other issue. They make lousy decisions, they lie, they cover up. Just what you want from your government.

Get them the hell out of there. Now. Let someone protect the public health who actually is concerned about the public health.

One other note.

In the same video that we produced for the CIES conference, we had Phil Lempert not just questioning government procedures with regard to mad cow (boy, was he right on that one!), but also saying that the media generally hasn’t done a very good job of covering food safety issues.

He’s right on this one, as well. The Post put this story – which strikes us as being about a clear breach of the public trust - on page A-7.

This is another reason why eventually consumers are going to have to take matters into their own hands, and they’re going to appreciate places that print origins and farm names on their labels, as Whole Foods and other organic markets have been doing for years.  If this kind of foolishness keeps up, we will have a veritable coup on our hands!

The Wedding Singer

Right now I’m sitting in intermission for “the wedding singer” the musical. It’s freakin awesome! I highly recommend it!

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Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

What the heck are they DOING over there

Re-directioning

Dear Seattle,

Today I put in my two-weeks notice at work. I have already made arrangements with a company called AudienceCentral in Bellingham, WA to start working there as soon as possible.

This has been a difficult decision. I like the grocery industry and love the people I work with at Associated Grocers. It’s no secret that I registered lachmullen.com and posted my resume there, and of course I afor every job on Starbucks’ website and Microsoft’s website (who doesn’t). I had even sent my resume to Google. But I wasn’t actively looking, simply getting myself out there to see what happened.

AudienceCentral came forward with an opportunity to travel, work in a small-company setting with large clients, have more flexibility with my time and of course, stock options. The “downside” is that it involves a move back to Bellingham, the town I grew up in and have not yet grown fond of through absence.

I will miss my church, my Seattle friends, Safeco Field, the amazing view from my neighborhood, the wonderful restaurants and the proximity to everything. It’s not like Bellingham is podunk, but it’s not exactly a metropolis either.

If you are a Friend form me who lives in Bellingham and are hearing this for the first time tonight, don’t be offended, I’m still at work and plan on calling you this evening to let you know. Since 10 people read my blog last week (jk), I doubt this will be a problem.
I love you, Seattle (you’re like a sister to me), but it’s time to move on.

It’s not you, it’s me.

Love,

Lach

Cool Seahawks Blog

For some INTENSE fan support of the Seahawks (good to see a Seattle fan in Denver!), plus some great rants about stupid Seattle jokes, check out http://thesportsjunky.blogspot.com/. This guy’s great. Now that the Seahawks are going to Superbowl XL, we need all the support we can get!