CREEKSTONE SELF-TESTING PLEA GETS LOUDER

"Former Kansas Senator Nancy Kassebaum Baker, wife of the U.S. ambassador to Japan, is asking the Agriculture Department to reconsider its refusal to let American meatpackers do their own tests for mad cow disease. Creekstone Farms has said Japanese buyers were willing to accept its beef if the company tested every animal and had Agriculture
Department certification." The USDA rejected the license on the grounds that there's "no scientific reason to test every animal." Hmmmm... how about the science of, No Test, No Overseas Market?

UPDATE 4/19: The New York Times weighs in editorially: "What is most worrying about this entire incident is not that Creekstone will not be able to do the tests, or even that the federal government appears to be discouraging a minor concession that would lead to both exports and jobs. If the cattle industry has the clout to sway a government department on this kind of issue, it probably has the clout to influence federal officials when it comes to questions much closer to the interests of American consumers." Gosh, ya think?