Bush says market is wrong

A small meat packer is looking to test all of its meat for Mad Cow disease. Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows and then advertise their meat as "safe." Great idea. The market, both domestic and foreign is concerned with Mad Cow disease (or at least Creekstone feels that it is), and Creekstone is going to use the same test that feds use (only the feds test about 1% of all meat).

This is great. Everyone complains about lousy FDA standards and testing, and here a private company is stepping up to provide the service. In essence, the private sector wants to take on a government service. Awesome. They take the risk, if they cannot pass on the cost, or are wrong about the markets desire for this information, they take the hit, if they're right, they get the reward (but probably short lived. If Creekstone is right, other companies would quickly follow, but again, that's on Creekstone). Plus, they're heavily incentivised to do it right. Announcing this program, then doing it wrong would kill the business.

What's not great?

The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.

Why?

The Agriculture Department regulates the test and argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry.

To which I say...huh? It's the same test the FDA uses. Clearly, Creekstone has no interest in doing anything to harm the industry...its their industry. Plus, if Creekstone has a false positive, the damage directly and powerfully harms them. They have the highest interest in making sure the test is done correctly, a Creekstone false positive hammers them.

Why is W so opposed to letting the market work this out? It takes the pressure off of the FDA, if the model works, this could potentially save the taxpayers money or allow the FDA to shift resources to other areas. Its an easy "yes" to anyone who truly supports a free market and small government. I don't want to be cynical, but the only reason I can come up with for W's hex is that the,

Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too.

My bet is that they make loads of contributions too. But that's just me.