Postby Technomancer » Sun Jan 11, 2004 6:32 pm
It has to do with the use of mechanical separation as opposed to what humans can do. The machines can get some more meat off of the cow, but lack precision, and so scrape of other bits that aren't meat (like tissue from the central nervous system, where the prion resides). You can also avoid the issue entirely by buying certified organic meat, where the sort of feed that caused BSE in the first place has always been prohibited.
The mad cow issue has caused far more trouble here in Canada than it has in the US. We're considerably more dependant on exports than the Americans are. A single case occured in Alberta last May, and we're still unable to export anything. What's particularly galling is the hypocrisy of the US government, which continues to keep the border closed to Canadian beef exports, demanding at the same time that other countries open their borders to American beef. The cow that was found in the United States was born before the 1997 feed ban was implemented (which banned animal parts in cattle feed).
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/madcow/index.html
The scientific method," Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, "is nothing but the normal working of the human mind." That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in corrrecting its mistakes. Taking this point of view, we may conclude that science is not physics, biology, or chemistry—is not even a "subject"—but a moral imperative drawn from a larger narrative whose purpose is to give perspective, balance, and humility to learning.
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(The End of Education)
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