USDA Actively Blocks Testing of Mad Cow Disease
By Monica @ 4:00 PM   
How would you feel if a government agency, with a century-long mission to inspect the food supply for safety, refused to allow testing for food-borne diseases? Sound too absurd to be true? Read about it here and here. Here are the basics. Creekstone Farms spent $500k to test for mad cow disease (BSE) so that they could sell beef to Japan in order to meet Japan's strict importation standards after the mad cow scare. Here’s the hitch. The USDA controls access to test kits for mad cow disease. When Creekstone Farms requested the kits, it was denied by the USDA the ability to test for the disease. Why? Because the USDA caved to special interest pressure of groups such as the National Cattlemen’s Association, who were afraid that the testing of every cow might become the standard for all slaughterhouses for domestic sales as well.
In other words, it might have revealed an actual problem with the safety of the US beef supply or allowed a competitor greater market share due to increased quality and consumer demand. And goodness knows, we can't allow the free market to work in order to reveal safety problems and meet customer demand!
Perhaps there are many people in the United States who wouldn’t care whether every head of cattle is tested for BSE or not. But why not let the free market give it a try? Is it reasonable to assume that some individuals would pay only $.20 more per pound for beef that is BSE-free? Yes. Creekstone Farms filed a lawsuit challenging the USDA’s decision. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Creekstone had to be allowed to buy the test kits. Unfortunately, the USDA appealed the decision. A three judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“DC Circuit”) reversed the decision. They ruled that the USDA now has legal authority to prevent the use of BSE tests by Creekstone Farms. You can read the DC circuit’s lengthy decision here. You can also read this insightful piece about how the USDA probably wouldn’t have won this appeal without the occurrence of a previously existing regulation called the Virus-Serum-Toxin Act (VSTA).
Remember and tell this story the next time someone hits you over the head with their nonsense about the need for government “safety” standards and regulations. The free market can do it better, if our government would allow it.Labels: Conventional Wisdom, De-regulation, Government Idiocy, Why the USDA is Not Your Friend
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