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Texas Agriculture Archive

March 19, 2004

Riding herd on food safety

By Mike Barnett
Editor

"Mornin' Sam," Jake said at their morning coffee ritual at the local Dairy Queen."

"Mornin," Sam replied, "Looks like rain later. Heard the latest about that Mad Cow?"

"You mean that made the paper?" Jake exclaimed. "I told Ollie..."

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked.

"Ollie, my hand. He's in the hospital. I warned him not to get out of the truck in that south pasture. Them cows are not only mad, they're downright angry and mean! They ain't been worked in three years."

"No, Jake. Mad Cow...BSE. That disease called bovine something-or-other that's a whole mouth full of words that eats away cows' brains. You know, they found that single cow up in Washington with BSE that upset the whole apple cart as far as exports are concerned."

"Didn't know they raised cows in Washington. Thought it was all bull up there with all them politicians and such," Jake guffawed.

"Get serious. Washington State," Sam said. "I'm starting to get worried. Hear about that avian flu down in Gonzales?"

"Yeah, I heard somethin' about sneezin' chickens," Jake said. "It's a shame. I heard they had to kill the whole herd."

"Flock," Sam replied. "Chickens gather in flocks. It's a pretty serious disease. Sure feel sorry for that farmer, but animal health officials had to step in to keep it from spreading."

"So what are you worried about? Jake asked. "Washington's a heck of a long ways away and you don't raise chickens. What's buggin' you?"

"Heart disease...high cholesterol," Sam said.

"Oh' Sam. I didn't know. They going to operate?"

"I don't have heart disease," Sam snapped. "Remember back a few years, when beef was under attack by the media because doctors were saying it was too fat and unhealthy?"

"I remember," Jake replied. "Moms quit putting beef on the table and our prices went south."

"Lucky we slimmed our cattle down and paid for research that proved the critics wrong and got demand rising again," San said.

"What's this we? I didn't do that. You did that? I'm proud of you, Sam."

"Jake, you've got to keep up with what's happening. That research was paid for by the Beef Checkoff...you know, that dollar they take out every time you sell a calf at the sale barn?"

"That's where that dollar goes?" Jake asked. "I didn't know that. Makes me feel kind of proud now that I'm educated like you. You still ain't said what's buggin' you."

"Food safety. We raise the safest food in the world, but...."

"But what?" Jake asked.

"How many times does the consumer get pounded over the head about mad cows and sick chickens before they get turned off and stop buying meat?" Sam asked.

"Guess they could always turn to those vegetables that the TV news says has high levels of pesticides," Jake replied.

"Yeah, it makes me mad," Sam said. "What they don't report is that you're more likely to be hit by lightning 20 times in one year than contract BSE from an infected animal, if there's even one left in the U.S. It's not made clear that there's a difference between the bird flu in Gonzales and the strain that has killed people in Asia. And those pretty boys on TV talk a lot about pesticides causing cancer...what they don't tell you is levels of those pesticides are so far below government standards that they pose no risk at all!"

"It's a sorry state of affairs, all right," Jake replied. "So what should we do?"

"I'll tell you what I'm going to do," Sam said with conviction. "I'm going to continue to keep up with what's going on in our industry, so I can make intelligent decisions when they need to be made.

"I'm going to continue backing self-help programs that provide research for and promote our products.

"I'm going to continue to reach out to our city friends and tell them what a safe, wholesome and affordable food supply they enjoy.

"And I'm going to continue to invest my time in organizations like Farm Bureau whose goal is to keep agriculture strong."

How about you?