Interesting People mailing list archives
Californians already have "Mad cow disease" secrecy legislation
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 15:19:04 -0500
------ Forwarded Message From: DV Henkel-Wallace <gumby () henkel-wallace org> Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 11:56:00 -0800 To: <dave () farber net> Cc: <Bosley.John () bls gov> Subject: Californians already have "Mad cow disease" secrecy legislation
From: "Bosley, John - BLS" <Bosley.John () bls gov> Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 13:52:18 -0500 Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 13:43:57 -0800 From: "D. Richards" <dr961 () YAHOO COM> Subject: BSE secrecy plan Below is an example of how our government deals with the mad cow threat: Utah House approves sealing records on livestock and disease
The last time BSE-tainted meat entered the food supply (a year ago), Californians were unable to learn where the meat was sold. The USDA and the CDA (Calif dept. of Agriculture), like 11 other states, had signed a non-disclosure agreement. Without that agreement the USDA _refused_ to provide the state with any information about the tainted meat. So California officials could identify the store that sold the meat but were forbidden to reveal the information (although it was later leaked). The Feds' argument at the time was that the news was sufficiently old that the meat had surely already been consumed, and so there was no point in creating panic. If you look at the timeline the information was old because the USDA had sat on it. It's not clear to me that the state constitution actually allows state agents to sign such an agreement, but there you have it. Ironically, exactly a century ago, Upton Sinclair was hard at work on "The Jungle," the novel that lead to the food safety and labor safety laws now being dismantled. The USDA has suffered a classic case of regulatory capture. Unfortunately the Mercury news locks its articles away after a week, but I was able to find documentation on the web at Consumer Report's site: http://makeashorterlink.com/?E1D42218A -d ------ End of Forwarded Message ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
Current thread:
- Californians already have "Mad cow disease" secrecy legislation David Farber (Feb 17)