This is your brain on BSE

Talking Points Memo | Government asks court to block wider testing for mad cow

Government lawyers told a three-judge panel Friday they should reverse a lower court ruling that allowed Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef to conduct more comprehensive testing to satisfy overseas customers.

The Agriculture Department currently tests less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease. It argues that more widespread testing does not guarantee food safety and could result in a false positive that scares consumers.

False positives, huh? The only way this position could make sense is if the test has enough false negatives that Creekstone might be misleading customers when it says all its products pass.

And heaven forfend consumers should be afraid of dying horribly because their food is contaminated and the USDA didn’t bother to test it.

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