Health and environment moooos

Well, neither Tom of the loose dentures Brokaw or his "expert", said any of this on TV:

Alarm over the brain-wasting disease pressured share prices of fast-food companies and raised fears humans could become infected. An official said on Wednesday meat from the cow might have been eaten as hamburgers.

Japan and South Korea, the top two buyers of American beef, swiftly halted imports along with Singapore and Taiwan, a move likely to be followed by other major U.S. customers.  article

All they said was DON'T PANIC. There is no problem here.

From PR Watch:

Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber's 1997 book Mad Cow USA warned that unless the US adopted the same strict regulations implemented in Britain, including a ban on feeding rendered slaughterhouse waste as animal feed, mad cow disease would eventually emerge in the US. The US failed to act and late Tuesday the Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman announced that the first US case of mad cow disease has appeared in a "downer cow" in the state of Washington. Within minutes of USDA's news conference John Stauber was interviewed live on CNN and interviewed in The New York Times and other media refuting the reassuring spin of the USDA.

In related news, Nature reports what might be the first case of human mad cow disease spread by blood transfusion. In laboratory experiments blood plasma can spread mad cow-typed diseases, but the US government allows calves to be fed milk formula containing cattle blood plasma as a source of protein.

Mmmmm-mmmmm. More good stuff for cows to eat.

[Last year, Seattle's KIRO TV] investigative team found that "meat from dying, sick or diseased cows" is "getting into your food." After the report aired, a "host of state agencies" spent "tax money in a campaign to discredit our findings." KIRO stands by its story, even though "The Washington Beef and Dairy Commissions have been conducting a public relations campaign, criticizing KIRO-TV for broadcasting the stories of downer cows you just saw. You may not know, but you're paying for this government agency to attack our investigation."

A new global directory on the massive and deceptive PR push behind genetically engineered food is now available free online from the British organization GM Watch. The directory examines many of the key PR operators, front groups, corporate-friendly scientists, lobbyists, media scams and and political networks that are active in this field.

The Bush administration opened 300,000 more acres of Alaska's Tongass National Forest on Tuesday to possible logging or other development....Agriculture Department officials, with approval from the White House Office of Management and Budget, decided to exempt the acreage from the so-called roadless rule, an often-challenged Clinton-era policy.  article

And her shores for drilling. The final frontier.

But...in New Mexico...

State officials pushed fuel cell research for New Mexico as Toyota showcased a full-size sports utility vehicle that runs entirely on hydrogen, sending only water vapor out its tailpipe.

...Bill Reinert, national manager for Toyota's Advanced Technologies Group in Torrance, Calif., said hydrogen power could revolutionize business.

"If hydrogen works — and there's no guarantee it will work — it's a fundamental shift," he said.

Fuel cells produce electricity through a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, creating heat and water as byproducts. One significant hurdle: figuring out how to store the hydrogen.

Even with major advances in fuel-cell technology, it could be decades before a vehicle hits the market.

  article

Is that gonna be too late?