Today the FDA once again gave into cattle and feed industry pressure and failed to ban both poultry litter and plate waste from animal feed. Americans remain vulnerable to the health risks created by having the organisms that cause “mad cow” disease pass into the human food supply. The new rule is less protective than the one proposed by FDA in 2002; less protective than the one promised by Secretary Thompson and former FDA commissioner McClellan in January 2004, less protective than the feed rule implemented in Canada and even less protective than the definition of risky materials as implemented by USDA.

The Bush Administration has determined that it is too burdensome on feed mills and renderers to take the steps that will give Americans the protections the government once said were important. The firewall is faulty.