Mad Cow - Mad USDA

When the USDA made the announcement about the case of mad cow disease discovered in California earlier this week, there was panic abroad.  The dairy cow randomly tested for this mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, was not to be slaughtered for food, but it is frightening all the same.

Mad cow disease is caused by using cow remains in the cattle feed.  Since the outbreak first appeared in the 1980s with English cattle herds, approximately 200,000 cattle have been affected worldwide.  Mad cow disease has not been detected in the U.S. since 2006 due to some measly efforts made by the United States Department of Agriculture.  Currently, the U.S. only screens 1 in 1,700 cows out of the 34 million slaughtered annually.  After the two cases of mad cow disease in 2006, the FDA and USDA banned the inclusion of spinal cords and brains from cows 30 months and older from the animal feed.

What is currently allowed in cattle feed, besides the spinal cord and brains from younger cows, is plate waste (restaurant scraps), poultry litter, and cow and pig blood.  As if that isn't nauseating enough, they use the cow and pig blood to supplement protein in the milk for the young calves.

If a human does consume meat from a diseased cow they will fall ill to the human form of mad cow disease called Variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease, or vCJD, which has killed approximately 150 people worldwide.

The USDA tells us not to worry and to note that only 4 cases of BSE has occured in the U.S. since 2003.  What Americans need to be aware of is that symptoms for humans and cows infected with this disease can go years without showing signs.  "It is possible for a person infected with vCJD to live for 30 years before showing any symptoms of the disease, and since it is impossible at this point to diagnose vCJD before symptoms are experienced, it is likely many more people are carrying the disease completely unaware."

Not only do I feel betrayed by the government departments created to protect me, I am completely and utterly disgusted to learn what all goes into the meat Americans consume on a daily basis.  Our safest course is to eat organic or 100% grass-fed cattle.  Better yet, shop at your local farms to market!  Hopefully, Americans will educate themselves and spend the extra money for good quality beef.  This would cause the meat industry to start making healthier choices on how they process the cattle.  Once that day comes; we would no longer have to worry about mad cow disease.

Safe in Our Military

On blog, Wife of a Veteran, there was a post titled "Sexual Violence in the Military" that really struck a personal chord with me.  The blogger talks about all the sexual assault cases that happen in the military, how most of the criminals do not get disciplined, and she points out that there are still many horrifying stories left untold due to fear.  I feel the blogger is trying to tell everyone in America that these women, and men, that serve our country do not deserve this treatment, and the perpetrators must be punished.

When I was 20 years old, I went into a Navy recruiting office ready to sign up and serve my country.  During every visit to the recruiting office, my 35 year old recruiting officer, who was married with kids, would heavily hit on me and make me extremely uncomfortable.  He would call me most nights to see if I wanted to go out drinking with him even though he knew I was under age.  Needless to say, I did not end up joining the military.  I was deathly afraid most men that would be on my ship would have the same creepy personality as my recruiting officer.  It was a rude awakening for me, to say the least.

I do not feel every man in the military is a pervert or a rapist, as I know many brave and great men that serve our country right now.  Having said that, what frightened me the most was how the recruiting officer would do this in front of the other recruiters in his office, and they all found it funny even though I was obviously not okay with his actions.  How am I, or any other woman, going to trust these type of men with my life?

We all know rape is difficult to talk about, and Americans definitely don't want to think of their brave soldiers being capable of such horrific crimes, but this "ignorance is bliss" approach on the issue must stop.

Fortunately, there are groups fighting the Department of Defense to show the records indicating how many cases of rape and sexual assault there have been in the military.  Due to the Freedom of Information Act, the Dept. of Defense should be required to share the records but keep finding ways around it.  We must continue to demand this information so that we may find out just how much the military is hiding in regards to this issue.  All Americans that serve our country deserve the right to feel safe and protected by our government.  If not, what are they fighting for?