Rosemary Parkinson, Contributor

Cows grazing, as they should, on grass here in Jamaica. - photo by Rosemary Parkinson

Sitting in a cookshop eating delicious brown-stew kidney, I suddenly wondered from whence they hailed. Our not-diseased (yet) grass-fed cows side ah road, or imported?

I asked the cook. She did not know. I then asked the proprietress: "dem come from foreign". I near dead. I knew instantly that 'foreign' meant the United States.

We just had a fairly (and sadly) quiet blast of news on the US mad cow disease scandal. I immediately felt all the symptoms equivalent to Cruetzfeldt-Jakob Disease (in humans this equals mad cow). Memory loss, emotional instability, unsteady gait and weakness. As I drove towards MoBay, I swore all other symptoms had enveloped me: inappropriate outbursts (I cussed that our Jamaican people were not properly informed about ensuring that US beef is out); dementia (so vexed, I could not remember if I had passed Trelawny or entering Kingston!).

Reaching home safely (although convinced that my immune system was working overtime), I immediately detoxed. I then went to the Internet determined to get some facts.

The most accepted theory on mad cow disease (Bovine Spongiform Encropholopathy) has to do with: (a) grossly improper diet for cows (and sheep) and (b) prions. Improper diet includes the use of hormones, antibiotics and pesticides, coupled with feed mixed with dehydrated leftovers of butchered farm animals. Prions are proteins felt to be essential for the reproduction of living tissue.

Clean-up crew

When a cow is sick, it produces a clean-up crew (prions, bacteria, fungi and viruses) to clean the 'mess'. This mess and crew are then dumped into the cow's blood stream for elimination from the body through the liver, kidneys et al. The effect of the cleansing/fight can be so harsh, death results. If humans then eat the meat, they will be affected by not only the cow's clean-up crew and toxins, but now dem have to create dem own private clean-up posse. A dreadful, long drawn-out death is the end product.

According to Dr Day - an alternative medical doctor/author - prions are not destroyed by fire, freezing, disinfectants, by operating room sterilisation procedures, or intense radiation. In fact, scientists and government agencies have not found a way to destroy them!

The beginning

But how dis ting start? Another Internet hit claims ranchers cut costs by feeding their animals ground-up dead animals. Animals that have died of disease, as well as humane society animals - cats and dogs that have been euthanised (ugh!). This process of grinding up diseased, dead animals as feed for other animals is called 'rendering'. But sheep and cows are herbivores - vegetarians. They are supposed to graze - to eat grass; they are not meat-eaters. Their intestines and body systems cannot stay healthy when fed the wrong diet!

Delving more I found this article: Mad Cow Disease comes to America by Swaraj Singh of The Kashmir Telegraph, January 2004. "America just had its first mad cow disease case in Sunny Dene Ranch, south of Yakima the largest city in the central part of Washington. South of Yakima, there are many dairy farms and cattle ranches where beef is raised. In 1986, mad cow disease was first seen in England where 143 people died (out of 153 in the whole world) of this disease. Three and a half million cows had to be destroyed, leading to the devastation of the British beef industry."

Cover-up time: Mad Cow USA - The Cover-Up Begins to Unravel, submitted by John Stauber in June 2005, said, "The US government's elaborate cover-up of mad cow dangers in the United States began to unravel when due to a successful protest with Organic Consumers, USDA Secretary Mike Johanns was forced to admit that a cow tested in 2004 and declared safe, did in fact have mad cow disease, or at least was tested positive on the definitive Western Blot test recently administered by the same USDA and considered the 'gold standard' for BSE testing."

When the mad cow disease scandal hit Britain and parts of Europe, me stop eating meat and longed for home and some good grass-grown beef from our markets.

Farmers, beef producers, butchers across this blessed country you have a big role to play. Ensure our cows are free as birds, organic, and de only madness we will 'ave is those who still import.