Chicken Giant Behind Hoof, Mouth?
Fowl Play
by James Ridgeway
"Could the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease affecting global beef markets
be an act of industrial espionage rather than nature? Could Tyson Foods Inc.,
the world's leading meat supplier, be behind the deadly slaughter?" These
concerns are voiced by Dr. Leonard Horowitz, who claims to have previously
traced the origins of mad cow disease to a CIA "industrial espionage" op,
allegedly part of a broader bioterrorist move to reinvigorate the agency by
turning it into a corporate gun for hire. Horowitz points the finger at Tyson
only in part because execs in the firm were close to the Clintons. He thinks
another connection can be found in a supposed E. coli outbreak, which he
claims made it easier for the big chicken processor to take over a beef
company by driving down its stock price. Then there was the 1997 outbreak of
chicken flu in China—yet another sign, in Horowitz's view, of Tyson's hidden
hand. All of this undertaken, in Horowitz's view, to drive down competing
agribusiness and extend the tentacles of Tyson's chicken monopoly around the
world. As of Monday evening, Tyson had no comment. According to conspiracy
buffs, that's just the beginning of the CIA's dirty work. Another theory has
it that the U.S. set off a hoof-and-mouth epidemic in Iraq in 1993 during the
Persian Gulf war by blowing up a lab that made vaccine to fight the disease.
This, too, was a CIA bioterrorist move, killing or crippling millions of
animals and contributing to the misery of Iraq's civilian population. At the
time, the U.S. claimed the supposed lab was engaged in making germ and
biological warfare agents.
Napalm Pushed in Hoof, Mouth War
Apocalypse Now
British officials struggling to get a grip on the hoof-and-mouth epidemic by
intensifying the slaughter of cows, pigs, and sheep may get a boost from
American researchers who recommend using napalm to burn carcasses cheaply and
quickly. Napalm burns up a carcass in 60 minutes, compared to current methods
requiring three days. Cost is a few dollars per animal compared to the
current cost of $2800. "We are talking pennies," Louisiana State University
expert Martin Hugh-Jones told the magazine New Scientist. "Napalm does not
vaporize easily and so does not produce dangerous fumes," he said. "Nor does
it produce any dangerous by-products as a result of burning." But a
spokeswoman at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food said the
Brits have no plans to use napalm. "It is not an option that has been looked
at so far," she said. "There are likely to be safety concerns that we would
need to look at first, and we would need to have a lot of discussion about
the risks."
