Alternative Fuel?

[MtnBiker]

USDA: Cattle Brains May Be Turned Into Biofuels
Mon May 17, 2004 05:36 PM ET


By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cattle brains and other remains that may carry the deadly mad cow disease would be turned into biofuels under a plan announced on Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Cattle brains, skull, eyes, spinal column, small intestine and other parts suspected of harboring mad cow disease were banned from human consumption in December as a safety precaution, shortly after the discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in the United States.

Some consumer groups have called on the Bush administration to go a step further and ban these "specified risk materials" from swine, poultry and other animal feed made from ground-up cattle remains. All cattle parts already are banned from cattle feed to protect against the spread of mad cow disease.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering tougher regulations on animal feed since finding the brain-wasting disease in the United States. One month ago, an agency official said FDA was considering banning specified risk materials from poultry and swine feed.

Under the new USDA program, a $50 million loan guarantee program would be set up to help small businesses in rural areas develop ways to turn cattle brains and other high-risk parts into a "bio-based source of energy."

Full Story

 

[nycflasher]

Well...that's fascinating.

Making fuel from the diseased "spare parts" and brains of one of the stupidest animals on the planet.

Glad I ate already.
And I don't know what to say about this, except, well "Go DOA! Way to make use of what would have otherwise been incinerated or buried."

Too bad my car doesn't run on fucking ethanol! lol

If only I had a rocketship

 

[MtnBiker]

The parts are not necessarily diseased, there is a possiblity that they harbor madcow. Those parts just cannot be used for human consumption anymore, and of course the beef industry wants to utilize all parts of the animal in a profitable way if possible.

 

[nycflasher]

Originally posted by MtnBiker
The parts are not necessarily diseased, there is a possiblity that they harbor madcow. Those parts just cannot be used for human consumtion anymore, and of course the beef industry wants to utilize all parts of the animal in a profitable way if possible.

Gotcha, I stand corrected.
Well, as far as that goes, I was amazed when I was in Spain in '98 and went to a large outdoor market. I was amazed at the different types of the animal they eat that I was not used to seeing at the supermarket. Lungs, tripe(think I've heard that word around here alot recently, lol), hearts, you name it...

And while I think it's pretty nasty eating some of that stuff, other countries probably are not guilty of as much waste as us Americans. Especially 3rd world countries where they need every bit of food they can get.

 

[MtnBiker]

Originally posted by nycflasher
Gotcha, I stand corrected.
Well, as far as that goes, I was amazed when I was in Spain in '98 and went to a large outdoor market. I was amazed at the different types of the animal they eat that I was not used to seeing at the supermarket. Lungs, tripe(think I've heard that word around here alot recently, lol), hearts, you name it...

I've been to markets like that in other countries, we are use to our butchers doing their business in the back out of sight. But in those open markets they are breaking down whole carcusses right there if front of everbody. And yes they do use the whole animal. Seems quite strange doesn't Flasher, but really makes sense for them.

 

[nycflasher]

Originally posted by MtnBiker
I've been to markets like that in other countries, we are use to our butchers doing their business in the back out of sight. But in those open markets they are breaking down whole carcusses right there if front of everbody. And yes they do use the whole animal. Seems quite strange doesn't Flasher, but really makes sense for them.

Do you think the "out of sight, out of mind" mentality pervades other aspects of American life?

Yes, it does seem strange. I am so horrified(I say this half-joking) at the thought of the public display of animal parts, yet I eat all sorts of meats almost everyday.

Really, it's enough to make me want to be a vegetarian again.

Either that, or to live off the land as was done on this very spot where I sit a few hundred years ago.

I digress, back to my question, do you think the "out of sight, out of mind" mentality pervades other aspects of American life?

 

[MtnBiker]

Originally posted by nycflasher
I digress, back to my question, do you think the "out of sight, out of mind" mentality pervades other aspects of American life?

Yes, I believe you could apply that reasoning to many aspects of any life.

 

[MtnBiker]

What I want to do is drive a vehicle fueled on this type of alternative engergy source, through a drive-in burger joint.

Now that would really piss off PETA.


p.s. And make that vehicle a 4X4 SUV!, with a gun rack!

 

[nycflasher]

Originally posted by MtnBiker
Yes, I believe you could apply that reasoning to many aspects of any life.

Oh come on, don't be so vague :

What I mean is, as you said in other countries they aren't disgusted by guts(?) the way we are.

Similarly, I'm trying to thinmk of other taboos. Other things that we do, and then pretend we don't.

We eat all kinds of meat, but we like it either neatly packaged for convenience or neatly prepared for aesthetic reasons. The last thing we want to see when we go to the market (for the most part, I can't speak for all Americans) is brains, and guts and lungs.

I think that is sort of, I dunno, hypocritical? Or that we are in denial?

I dunno.
I'm fishing.

 

[MtnBiker]

Oh I gotcha, yeah sure there are plenty of aspects you could point a finger to in regard to the food industry. Try visiting a poultry plant(I have not actually been to one) to see mass amounts of chickens grown and harvested at the tune of millions of pounds per day. That may make you think twice when you buy chicken breasts at the supermarket. I really do not have a problem with such practices but I'm not blind to them either.