"Thirteen years ago
was the first time I publicly spoke out about what I
considered a looming potential disaster, bovine spongiform
encephalopathy, (BSE) or what has become known as mad
cow disease.
During these years I have been bombarded with verbal
and legal abuse from many different adversaries.
These adversaries have unlimited funds. I wish I
could say the same about my position.
Year after year I have called for an honest approach
to a problem that may demand a cost in human life
which is beyond comprehension by most citizens of
the world. Governments
have repeatedly chosen to ignore the problem until
the cost of the solution has reached astronomic proportions.
England, the first known place of BSE, denied the
problem to the point where they almost destroyed
the cattle industry
along with more than three and a half million of their
cattle. Even today the industry only survives
with taxpayer support.
With England's example, you would think other countries
around the world, using like feeding practices, would
learn and try to err on the side of safety.
Unfortunately
that lesson is yet to be learned. Germany using
the same BSE test we are using was adamant their agriculture
practices were preventing mad cow in their herds. When
they started administrating the rapid test, which is
free from human error, they found plenty of infected
animals.
I have tried to educate our nation so we would not
have to repeat this painful lesson. For
this effort I have been attacked by the animal
industry and accused
of being a traitor to the business where I worked the
majority of my life.
When verbal abuse didn't work they tried the legal
path. I had appeared on the Oprah Winfrey television
show explaining
to millions of viewers that we were feeding cows to
cows. Subsequently I spent over six years defending
myself
in four suits brought by cattle feeders. Litigation
continued even after the appellate court said,
in their opinion,
every thing I said on the Oprah Show was true and the
truth is not actionable.
I can't count the number of times we have heard public
officials state that BSE is not a threat to the human
population. That, BSE is only an animal problem,
which has been controlled by the swift action of government
agents. Every time these assurances have proved
to be wishful thinking.
Country after country has tried to deal with this
problem with a public relations campaign. Each
time it has backfired, exposing the consuming
public to greater
danger while trying to enhance the profits of the animal
industry.
I'm on the record saying that the United States,
using similar feeding practices as England, should
expect similar
results. We have been reassured repeatedly not
to worry because we have installed the so-called firewalls
to protect our industry from mad cow disease. With
over thirty-seven million cattle being slaughtered each
year in the U.S., we are testing less than twenty thousand. This
is like a blind person finding a needle in a haystack.
Today we are faced with the report a confirmed case
of mad cow in Canada. Canada exports almost eighty
percent
of their bovine animals to the United States annually. In
reaction to this report we immediately banned Canadian
beef and sent out a press release declaring consumers
in the U.S. safe.
The United States and Canada can almost be considered
one country as far as the animal population is concerned. Our
wild animals are not impeded by the lines drawn on a
map and our farm animals travel, both live and dead,
in the millions across the borders. The recent
assurances from public officials from both the U.S.
and Canada repeat the failed statements of the past.
I will continue to speak
on the dangers in our food supply. These
efforts could have been avoided if consumer safety
would have been addressed instead of corporate profit.
This
war is not over but the end is in sight. Let
us pray we need not fill our cemeteries to bring
this war
to an end."
- Howard Lyman, May 27, 2003
