This has consumer groups in an uproar

Government scaling back mad cow testing

I'm glad I haven't (at least intentionally) eaten beef since 1991 and don't plan to do so, as I don't believe I could kill a cow myself, and that's the requirement I eat by. True, it is very rare to transmit this prion disease to humans, but it could happen.

Granted, I see part of the problem. The only way to test for mad cow disease is to kill the animal and check it's brain tissue, so at present that's about 1,000 a day. But it seems to me that higher testing means higher consumer confidence and also confidence for those to whom we export beef, like the Japanese. So, it's sort of a catch-22 in terms of oeconomics.