Tuesday, January 06, 2004

Oligopolies and mad cows The power of oligopolies to determine their own environment has been revealed once again, this time in the current US "Mad Cow" scare. Vigilantly resistant to regulation, the beef industry has convinced a compliant Congress and executive branch "to keep the government off their back." Key personnel in the US watchdog agencies in the department of agriculture (USDA) are former beef industry executives. And as the industry has concentrated, its political clout has grown. The mad cow crisis has revealed some of the ways in which Big Beef has bent the regulatory process. There was fair warning about BSE (the scientific name for the disease), starting with the horror of the UK's experiences and followed more recently by a warning case in Canada. With proper attention, the whole thing could be prevented. But according to a Newsweek article ("Mad Cow: What's Safe Now?", 1/12/2004), the beef industry has been the obstacle. It has managed to influence the government to: Leave loopholes in the ban on feeding cattle remains from dead animals, an abhorrent practice that a 1997 law only partially prohibited, and which is known to be the main cause of BSE. Minimize cattle inspection in general, resulting in spotty and tardy testing. Divided between several subagencies. Allow the slaughtering of diseased or "downer" cattle. Allow the use of mechanical pickers using a process called "advanced meat recovery" that tends to allow nerve tissue to get mixed in with meat. Avoid a tracking system that would allow inspectors to know the provenance of every cow from birth (or import) to supermarket shelf. All of this has led to great cost savings for the companies, who are minimally bothered by pesky inspectors. It has also meant that consumer prices have gone up less than they might. But it has done so at great peril to public health. The US government has reacted with horror at the outbreak, hoping to contain it. But few are talking about establishing new regulations that would minimize this and other beef-borne health issues. After the panic is over, short of massive outbreak, it's unlikely there will be any fundamental change: the oligopoly controls its own environment. 8:16:02 PM

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