Like a failing student who manages to crank out a last-minute paper in hopes of bringing his grade up to a “D”, USDA and FDA have taken each taken some strong eleventh-hour steps to address the threat of mad cow disease. But a single paper does not an “A” scholar make – and the agencies’ halfhearted effort to make food passingly safe is nowhere near what is required to keep millions of Americans from suffering needlessly in 2004 from devastating foodborne disease.

Last month, USDA banned the use of downer cows for human food, mandated temporary holding of any meat from cattle suspected of having BSE while tests are completed, and took other long-overdue steps to keep spinal tissue and other known BSE carrier-tissues out of the human food supply. FDA followed suit by announcing a host of new measures for animal feed, including a ban on feeding cow blood, poultry litter, and plate waste to cattle. These actions are well-warranted, and demonstrate a courage to stand up to industry previously unseen from the current administration. Yet the new measures remain grossly insufficient to protect American families from the impacts of mad cow disease – and do next-to-nothing to prevent the 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 annual deaths that already occur annually from contaminated food.

A Dire Report Card. Stop: Safe Tables Our Priority. 1 March 2004   www.safetables.org/Media/Press_Releases/comments2_6_2004.html