Free Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman Page A

founded the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1862—when the majority of people were farmers and needed to exchange information about seeds and crops. In other words, the USDA was created to help farmers.
    According to its web site, now, among other things, the USDA is responsible for “the safety of meat, poultry, and egg products.”158
    Hmm. That’s weird. ’Cause many high-ranking staff members at the USDA were employed by, or are otherwise affiliated with, the meat and dairy industries.159 And if the group responsible for “the safety of meat, poultry, and egg products” is run by people from the same industries they’re supposed to be protecting us from . . . well, that would be a conflict of interest. And it is. An enormous, ridiculous, outrageous, catastrophic conflict of interest.
    One former USDA Secretary was forced to resign amid charges of accepting illegal corporate gifts from seven different companies.
    He was indicted on thirty-nine felony counts, including tampering with a witness; accepting illegal gratuities; making false statements; and violating the Meat Inspection Act of 1907. (Tyson Foods, one of the companies that admitted to giving the Secretary corporate favors, was required to pay $4 million in fines and endure four years’ probation. A mere slap on the wrist, when the USDA could’ve barred Tyson from selling food to military bases and schools. That would’ve really stung, considering Tyson sold more than $10 million worth of food to the Defense Department alone in 1996.160 But friends don’t treat each other that way.) President George W. Bush’s Agriculture Secretary from January 2001 until January 2005, Ann Veneman, not only had ties with the company responsible for producing the controversial bovine growth hormone, (BGH), but she was also linked to a major meatpacking corporation.161 The buck doesn’t stop there. She employed a spokes-woman who was the former public relations director for the Cattlemen’s Beef Association, a chief of staff who used to be its head lobbyist, a former president of the National Pork Producers Council, and former executives from the meatpacking industry, just to name a few.162
    Safety Last
    With that in mind, it’s no wonder Veneman vetoed a program that would test all U.S. cattle for mad cow disease. In fact, out of the 35 million cattle slaughtered in 2003, the USDA only tested 20,000 for mad cow disease. (Japan tests all of their cattle killed for human consumption.)163 Of course it wouldn’t be in a rancher’s best interest to test all of his cattle. If they were inflicted with mad cow disease, he couldn’t sell their meat, and he’d lose money. Heaven forbid the USDA risk a rancher’s profits.
    So, in order to appear somewhat concerned about the prevention of mad cow disease, the USDA often refers to an FDA ban, which prohibits the feeding of ground-up cattle meat to live cattle. Big whoop. Banning cannibalism is a no-brainer. But why even bother banning cannibalism when they still allow the feeding of cattle blood to young calves? Stanley Prusiner, a Nobel Prize Prize Winner for his work on mad cow disease, refers to this practice as “a really stupid idea.”164 Think about it: A cow dies from mad cow disease, but no one knows, because it wasn’t one of the .0005714% percent tested. Cattle ranchers are now forbidden to grind up this dead cow and feed it to other cows. But, they can give its blood to calves as part of their feed. How fucking stupid, disgusting, and dangerous is that?
    The USDA also likes referring to another “safety” program in place, called The National Animal Identification System (NAIS).
    The NAIS is a system for identifying an animal’s origin so that if its meat is found to be contaminated, it can be traced back to a specific farm. (Forget testing as a preventative measure. Implement a system for after someone eats contaminated meat and we need a recall.) Participation in this program is voluntary.165 Wow, the