Stupid Comparisons

The New York Times > National > National Special > U.S. Won't Let Company Test All Its Cattle for Mad Cow: "Gary Weber of the cattlemen's association called 100 percent testing misleading to consumers because it would create a false impression that untested beef was not safe. He compared it to demanding that all cars be crash tested to prove they are safe."

But with beef, you don't have to destroy the product to prove it's safe. Plus crash-testing a car just demonstrates its potential to cause problems. A car crashing is dependent on the stupidity of the operator (or the operator of another car). So if this guy was calling testing every steak for E. coli like crash testing every car, then yeah, this would make sense. But cars don't get mad cow disease.

If 100 percent testing hasn't killed the beef industry in Europe and Japan (home of the most luxiurious beef in the world), it won't kill it in the United States. Face it, American beef industry - the reason people in Europe and Japan want total testing is because beef just isn't always safe, especially the cheapskate way you sell it to us.

And I don't believe this for a second: "Asked if beef producers did not want to be pressured to imitate Creekstone and pay for more tests, Mr. Weber said it was 'absolutely not about the money.'"