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Since the recent but short exposure regarding mad cow disease in the media and because March 20 is national meat out day, I decided to review the book "Mad Cowboy". "He challenges not only mad cows, but a mad system that gives us the dead wrong answer when we ask, "What’s for dinner?" We certainly haven’t learned much in the media or from our government regarding the origin and prevention of this threat in our food chain. Djevu, the tobacco industry in cahoots with the federal government hiding the facts of smoking on public health and depriving us to make informed decisions. Howard Lyman was a fourth generation cattle rancher in Montana, making it big and making millions. Due to serious illness he began to ask questions about his vocation and the effects it had on the people and land that he loved. The questions led to answers, which caused him to change vocations and also to go vegetarian. He lost 130 pounds and lowered his cholesterol by 130 points. In 1996 he appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show sharing his knowledge about the danger of eating meat and the threat of Mad Cow Disease in our country. He and Oprah were consequently sued by a group of Texas cattlemen. Lyman and Winfrey won and as Oprah says, "Free speech rocks." In the book Lyman blasts through beef and dairy industry propaganda and exposes an animal-based diet as the cause of cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. This is a must-read for anyone who is health conscious and in need of information on a healthy diet and lifestyle. He also teaches us about the horrific negative effect of agribusiness on Mother Earth and the innocent sentient beings who share this planet with us. Do you know what Spot and fluffy are eating....or who is eating them? The cattle industry is a $2.4 billion a year industry that processes 40 billion dead animals including euthanized dogs and cats and check this out...road kill. This is ground and mixed into the feed that is then given to the other animals including our animal companion’s food. And by the way, the fat that floats to the top is refined and used in cosmetics, lubricants, soaps, candles and wicks. The heavier material is dried and pulverized into a brown powder and used as additive in almost all animal-companion food. Howard’s experience with the law suit he and Oprah battled and how the cattleman tried to make him out to be a liar reveals the power of the cattle association, but more so the power of the TRUTH! Later in the book he again will win with his honesty on capital hill. This truthfulness also rings a bell when we consider the lack of truthfulness that today has dragged our country into an unnecessary invasion and devastation of Iraq. Seems we are at war with the truth about our food chain and impact on our lives. Chapter two reveals important facts including the impact of chemicals used in animal feed and the effects of these chemicals on our health. One in three Americans will become afflicted with cancer and his facts prove that eating meat, chicken and yes, even fish, will eventually cause these health issues. How about that "web of life?" We should have listened to Chief Seattle a long time ago! Interestingly, he points out that if stress were the major cause of heart disease, during WWII, heart attacks would have risen but instead they fell because people in war-torn countries were forced to eat less rich high fat foods." In other words, it is demonstrably better for your heart to eat a low fat, vegetarian diet while bombs drop all around you than to enjoy your steak in peace!" Lyman discusses studies that began a whole generation ago. Studies show that animal intake is also the cause of osteoporosis and diabetes. I believe we have been down this road before with the tobacco industry having studies done linking smoking to cancer. It was such a long time and many lives later that our government finally took action. How much suffering is to be inflicted before we come to our senses about what is happening to our food? He points out that most Americans have no idea of the extraordinary lengths that our Agriculture Department takes to protect the grower at the expense of the consumer, animal, and planet. "Improving on nature" is a chapter speaking to the loss of family farms, the importance of crop rotation to prevent soil erosion and the importance of organic farming - all of this not included in the agribusiness approach to farming. He writes his experience with his illness and how he began his transition from farmer to advocate on Capital Hill. He became a lobbyist for the National Farmers Union basing his work on honesty because he believes your word is your currency on the Hill. If your word becomes devalued you are no longer effective. During this time he became a vegetarian and his health problems started to clear up. In 1989, Washington knew about the Mad Cow Disease in Britain. He searched for information on the subject and found nothing. He called medical researchers who never heard of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy(BSE). His discussion of what he learned is easily understood and informative. BSE is not a virus but a protein they call "prion." This prion is from infected animals who die and are ground up and into the food of other animals. Many different animals can be infected. Every year about 100,000 cows die mysteriously in this country and the mysterious illness has been called "Downer Cow Syndrome." He hopes that our country will not follow the example of managing the crisis as the British for their approach was to wait and see how many people will die of the disease! Even though this book has been around for these many years it is still relevant and even more so now considering the recent revelation of Mad Cow Disease (BSE) here in the USA. I believe it to be one of the most important books for all Americans brave enough to read it! Who else is revealing the truth about our food and its origin and process to our dinner tables and its impact on our lives? It is an easy but factual read. It is "plain truth from the cattle rancher who won’t eat meat!" - Mary Ruth Aull |