Jade's weblog Archive

My friend Stanley sent me this information:

''Muscle meat from the cow was sent from the Centralia slaughterhouse to two Northwest plants that process beef. One is Interstate Meats of Federal Way, Wash. Officials identified the other as Willamette Meats.''

I have NOT found this in any national or international media reports, but I heard Washington State Governor Gary Locke mention on a regional news report this morning on Northwest Public Radio that they are NOT sure where the muscle meat went. He assured the public that brains, spinal cord, and other nervous system tissue from the subject cow were NOT put into the food supply.

I believe that it is possible to stream NWPR live, but I don't think that archives are available online.

This report from The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon, USA) gives more revealing information (also on the front page).

And, look at this from the King County Journal (Seattle area): ''after the cow was slaughtered, it was deboned at Midway Meats in Chehalis. From there, the meat -- though no contaminated spinal or brain tissue -- was sent to two other plants in the region, identified by the USDA as Willamette and Interstate Meat. Midway Meats appeared to be operating at full blast late Tuesday afternoon, with workers loading meat into trucks, and fresh blood running out of the slaughterhouse into a drain.''

A sanitized version of Gov. Locke's statement and more general info on BSE are available.

Personally, I am appalled that they would proceed with the slaughter and meat processing of a cow which prompted enough suspicion to warrant sending tissue specifically for a BSE test. What certainty is there that no risky neurological tissue was included in the meat sent to distributors?

The cow was apparently a ''retired'' dairy cow from a farm near Mabton, Washington, in the Yakima Valley; which is less than 100 miles from my home.

Thanks for sending me all, Stanley!