Hot on the heels of Chew On This of August 20’s report on new tests to detect BSE in cattle comes news that the government can prevent meat packers from testing their animals for mad cow disease.

Creekstone Farms Premium Beef of Arkansas City wants to test all of its cows because it is has qualms over the fact that the Department of Agriculture tests only a small percentage. So it sued the USDA for the right to do so at its own quite considerable expense. Now the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has overturned a lower court ruling that would have given them permission.

Meat packers larger than Creekstone are worried that if Creekstone are given the go head and can advertise that they test 100 percent of their cows, that would force them to perform the expensive test too.

Can anyone explain why the government should not support Creekstone? Perhaps the company only has enough funds to allocate them towards the testing and not an extra budget to direct towards expensive lobbyists who can question on their behalf why the general public should not be fully protected against the chance of contracting mad cow disease…