NPR, This Pirate’s Review

around lunchtime on Tuesday, the 28th of March 2006 by Chad

OK, lately I’ve been listening to NPR radio on the way to work. I want to throw out two items that caught my interest.

First is an item about a meat packer in the midwest who wants all his cattle tested for mad cow disease. The rational is that he can sell his cattle to Japan since they require complete testing. The USDA is preventing them from doing the testing. The story covers many angles, however they miss the most important point that left me very puzzled.

Who pays and who performs the testing? If the USDA pays and performs the testing, then the story makes sense. The rancher is trying to get more from the government than everyone else gets. In this case, I can see it being a big deal with resistance from the USDA. If the ranchers have to pay for the testing themselves, especially through private labs, then that’s a whole different story.

What I got out of the story was that it was the USDA that does the testing. Of course, that isn’t the case. They pay for and do the testing themselves.

But that was all made up for this morning. They had an arts showcase about Neko Case. Holy frickin’ cow what a voice.