Summary of the reasoning: 1) It would raise the bar for the rest of the cattle industry, 2) Higher likelihood of false positives, which could hurt profits.

That doesn’t even make business logic. If someone got CJD and died from eating BSE-infested cow meat, wouldn’t that be an even bigger loss in profits for the meat industry? Might even turn people vegetarian. ;-)

Posted by Tim McCormack on 30 May 02007 @ 8pm

It’s amazing that raising the bar could be considered bad. How far down the rabbit hole have we gone?

Posted by Waldo Jaquith on 30 May 02007 @ 10pm

According to Wikipedia, there have been precisely 3 cases of BSE (Mad Cow Disease) and 3 more of its variant affecting humans in the US. Ever. Testing all the animals seems like a solution in search of a problem. There’s a point at which safety precautions must yield to common sense. For example, lowering the speed limit on interstates to 35 MPH would undoubtedly lower traffic fatalities, but no one seriously suggests doing this. The cost in other terms is simply too high. IMO, this is just an opportunity for you guys to beat up on Bush a little bit.

Posted by Judge Smails on 31 May 02007 @ 3pm

JS, just to be clear, what Bush is opposing here is allowing private corporations to conduct their own tests on their own meat using their own money and their own standards.

Do you seriously favor a government so big that it can bar corporations from testing their own products?

Posted by Waldo Jaquith on 31 May 02007 @ 4pm

Yeah, well, when you put it like that, I mean, I kinda guess you have sort of a good point there.

Posted by Judge Smails on 31 May 02007 @ 4pm

Phew. You had me worried for a bit there. :)

Posted by Waldo Jaquith on 31 May 02007 @ 4pm