Talk till cows come home, but beef safety takes action, op-ed by Thomas McGarity

Flimsy Firewalls: The Continuing Triumph of Efficiency over Safety in Regulating Mad Cow Disease Risks, by Thomas O. McGarity with Frank Ackerman. White Paper 402, July 2004.

Only an Independent Agency Can Safeguard Beef, op-ed by Thomas McGarity

Letter to Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman asking her to "correct the public record with respect to misleading statements contained in USDA’s December 30 press release on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (mad cow disease) and to ask [her]to take more effective action to protect U.S. consumers from the risk of contracting variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease."

Writing on the Center for American Progress website, Tom McGarity observes that seven months into the discovery of Mad Cow disease in a Washington state cattle herd, it's time for the Bush Department of Agriculture to have a comprehensive plan. But the so-called "firewalls" it touts are more about public relations than food safety.