Mad Cow Disease Found!

Katherine DiMatteo, executive director of the Organic Trade Association, said she's certain that some of the standards the government adopted in 2002 for certified organic beef help to reduce the risk of transmitting mad cow disease.

For example, feed containing animal byproducts has been implicated in the spread of the disease in Europe. In the United States, cattle raised for certified organic beef must by law receive vegetative feed only -- meaning grass and grains.

The requirements for organic livestock production are defined by the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) standards that went into effect in 2002.

Beef production starts with a calf. Calves must come from a mother cow that is managed organically during the last third of her gestation period. After birth, the calf must be treated organically through its entire life.

All feeds must be organically produced. This includes pastures and purchased feeds such as hay or grains. Rations may not include animal by-products, urea or manure. Some FDA approved mineral and vitamin supplements are allowed if fed at recommended rates.

Living conditions are also regulated by the NOP standards. Your animals must be given access to fresh air and the great outdoors. Cattle must have access to pasture, but pasture does not have to supply all the required feed.

Growth-promoting drugs, including hormones, are not allowed. Cattle may be vaccinated to protect them from disease.

Sick animals must be given medical attention. If antibiotics are required, the animal should be treated but must also be removed from the organic herd. Withholding medical treatment to preserve organic status is not allowed.

The final steps of beef production, slaughter and processing, must occur at a certified organic processing facility.

Information from Larimer County Cooperative Extension, P.O. Box 543, Fort Collins, CO 80522

Bringing the Food Economy Home
Helena Norberg-Hodge and Steven Gorelick

Today's mounting social and ecological crises demand responses that are broad, deep, and strategic. Given the widespread destruction wrought by globalisation, it seems clear that the most powerful solutions will involve a fundamental change in direction - towards localizing rather than globalising economic activity. In fact, 'going local' may be the single most effective thing we can do.

Many people will find this claim exaggerated and unrealistic. But we have to ask ourselves whether it is realistic to continue pulling the entire global population into a single economy - one in which a small fraction of the population already uses the bulk of the world's resources. Today, roughly half the world's people, mostly in the South, still derive a large proportion of their needs from local economies. Do we really believe that those people's lives will be improved if we destroy these economies? What can globalisation offer the majority, other than unrealistic promises? Localisation would not only entail far less social and environmental upheaval, it would actually be far less costly to implement. In fact, every step towards the local, whether at the policy level or in our communities, would bring with it a whole cascade of benefits.

Localisation is essentially a process of de-centralisation - shifting economic activity into the hands of millions of small- and medium-sized businesses instead of concentrating it in fewer and fewer mega-corporations. Localisation doesn't mean that every community would be entirely self-reliant; it simply means striking a balance between trade and local production by diversifying economic activity and shortening the distance between producers and consumers wherever possible.

Where should the first steps towards localisation take place? Since food is something everyone, everywhere, needs every day, a shift from global food to local food would have the greatest impact of all.

President Bush shot quail on a hunting trip yesterday but ate beef, and encouraged Americans to do the same despite concern over mad cow disease. "I think I shot five," Bush told reporters at Brooks County Airport after returning from the hunt with his father on a dusty, desolate stretch of land in southern Texas.

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