This article appeared in the January 22, 2004 Jewish Advocate.

MIT to hold forum on mad cow

By Susie Davidson

Advocate Correspondent

As has been discussed on these pages, there may be a decreased risk of mad cow disease in Kosher-slaughtered beef. But since safety can never be taken for granted, it’s prudent to be as informed as possible regarding any public health matter before making personal choices.

Next Thursday evening, Jan. 29, interested consumers will have a remarkable opportunity to learn a great deal about this timely and complex medical issue when Michael Greger, M.D., gives a free public talk, "Mad Cow Disease: Plague of the 21st Century?”, at M.I.T. Greger, Chief Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Investigator for Farm Sanctuary since 1993, and the Mad Cow Coordinator for the Organic Consumers Association since 2001, will discuss what consumers can do to avoid contracting the human form of the disease, and what steps we as a nation need to take to safeguard our food supply.

Greger, a graduate of the Cornell University School of Agriculture and the Tufts University School of Medicine, is a general practitioner specializing in vegetarian nutrition as well as a prize-winning cook, and an internationally respected speaker at universities, medical schools and conferences on varied critical public health and social justice issues. Author of “Heart Failure: Diary of a Third Year Medical Student” and the upcoming “Optimum Vegan Nutrition,” as well as other works, CDs and DVDs, he contributes all proceeds to vegan charities. Gregor, who runs a mad cow disease website (www.organicconsumers.org/madcow.htm), has also contributed to many books on veganism and food safety issues.

Greger has spoken at the Conference on World Affairs and the World Vegetarian Congress, debated the National Cattlemen's Beef Association Director before the FDA, and was invited to be an expert witness defending Oprah Winfrey in her "meat defamation trial" several years ago. It is his contention that the American beef industry continues to risk public safety while the USDA remains unconcerned, and disposed to placing business interests ahead of consumer. National Cattlemen's Beef Association representatives have been invited to offer an industry perspective at the talk.

"In the United States, an unknown number of animals are infected with Mad Cow disease, causing an unknown number of human deaths from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)," says Greger, who feels that the US should immediately begin testing all cows destined for human consumption, as is done in Japan. "The US should also stop feeding slaughterhouse waste, blood and manure to all farm animals, and should immediately enact an active national surveillance program for CJD," he continues. "As long as the USDA treats this as a PR problem to be managed instead of a serious global threat, millions of Americans will remain at risk."

Kosher-slaughtered cattle, like those slaughtered commercially, are allowed to be fed slaughterhouse waste, cow blood and manure. "But since Kosher animals are not stunned prior to being bled out, there is no risk of the stunning process forcing bits of brain into the bloodstream,” says Greger, whose wife Susan Solomon, a graduate student in counseling psychology at Lesley University, keeps a Kosher home. “The remaining blood, peripheral nerve and skeletal muscle in the final product may carry some infectivity, but less than meat from conventionally-slaughtered animals, which may have brain emboli throughout the carcass.”

Gregor was raised in a small Arizona town, “the only Jewish family within 30 miles.” His parents were New York natives; his mother taught Biblical Hebrew at the community college. Following his parents’ divorce, his mother took his brother and he to a Jewish community in Binghamton, New York, where she taught Hebrew School at the orthodox Beth Israel synagogue.

While arming oneself with the pros and cons of meat consumption, it might be worthwhile to examine the suggestions of nutritionist Andrew Weil, who has long advised people to decrease animal protein in order to reduce saturated fats and environmental toxins in their diet. Weil advises using meat as a side dish rather than the entrée, serving familiar meals like bean burritos and pasta salads, eliminating meat from breakfast, and then from lunch, and substituting fresh vegetables for meat in recipes (vegetarian chili, he says, can be as satisfying as the heavier meat version). He also recommends vegetarian substitutes for hamburger, hot dogs and lunch meats available at Kosher and area supermarkets. Lastly, the appealing new flavors and tastes in new types of cuisine, he says, such as meat-free ethnic dishes, might make the consumer forget about the meat.

Michael Greger, M.D. will give a free public talk on Mad Cow disease Thursday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. in Cambridge at M.I.T., 77 Massachusetts Ave., Green Building, second floor, Room 54-100. Doors open 6:30. The talk is sponsored by EarthSave Boston and the MIT Vegetarian Group; directions and parking information can be found at EarthSave Boston's web site, boston.earthsave.org. EarthSave Boston regularly offers free public talks on the theme of "healthy people, healthy planet."