How much do we really know
about the food that we eat? And how often do we take for granted that our
legislators and law makers will take upon themselves the responsibility of
looking after the people's health safety in our food system. The day that we
stop becoming aware of the reality on how our food is being managed by our
so-called leaders is the day that we placed our population in extreme health
danger, a catastrophic proportion of endless possibilities of what could go
wrong. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or "Mad Cow Disease" has
its origin dating back to mid-1980s but a similar fatal disease called
"kuru", means "to shake", has been recorded dating back in
the early 1950s by an Australian explorer in Papua New Guinea. BSE, kuru, and
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease all belong to a family of diseases known as the
transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). Forms of TSEs such as
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), variant-CJD, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker
syndrome (GSS), fatal familial insomnia (FFI), and Kuru are known to affect
humans. And other forms such as scrapie, chronic waste, transmissible mink
encephalopathy (mink), and feline spongiform encephalopathy are known to affect
deer, elk, sheep and goats. BSE are known to affect the central nervous system
occurring mainly in the brain, trigeminal ganglia, tonsils, spinal cord, and
distal ileum of the small intestine of cattle. The progressive degeneration of
the nervous system is displayed on some clinical signs such as nervousness,
temperament, aggression, abnormal posture, difficulty in rising, decreased milk
production, or loss of body weight. The cause of BSE or "Mad Cow
Disease" has been linked to animal bi-products (normally from another cow)
being fed to cows which are ruminants, meaning their digestive system is meant
to process only grass or related plant form, not animal bi-products. BSE is
neither transmissible by contact nor contagious but only by consumption of meat
products that are infected by BSE. Is has been determined that the presence of
abnormal prion protein in the animal carcasses is a clear indication of BSE or
TSE. One known case in United States was a young woman who supposedly had
contracted the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) while living in United Kingdom,
where it is more prevalent. But the most recent reported case was in December
23, 2003, after a detection of presumptive positive BSE found in a Holstein
dairy cow slaughtered at an establishment in Moses Lake, Washington, which
resulted in a recall of more than 10,000 pounds of beef. Although FSIS has
since implemented measures to further safeguards public health, feeding of
animal bi-product is still being reported by independent investigators and
whistleblowers as a common practice seen in a lot of big beef producing
feedlots. Small family owned ranchers are known to raise and pasture their
cattle using natural methods such as grass feeding. Also, natural pasturing
involves raising cows in a free range or open air environment where cows are
free to move around as supposed to a confined and crowded areas where cows become
prone to all types of diseases. To ensure health safety on meat consumption, it
is recommended to purchase natural grass fed beef products from a reputable
small family owned ranch. These ranchers, who value integrity and tradition,
will continue to produce only the best and safest natural grass fed beef
products available, so long as consumers remain knowledge ably aware of these
diseases that could potentially derive from inhumane production of beef
products. Jose Felipe Abrigo is a contributing writer for Healthy & Living
More on natural grass-fed beef
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