RFD America

The weak-kneed American economy is teetering; we’re all bracing for impact, hoping that when the behemoth collapses, we’ll be spared any real injury. As the wall crumbles beneath Humpty Dumpty, the dereliction of so-called government oversight agencies is being exposed. What’s worse, the same government incompetence that brought us to the brink of total economic collapse now threatens to allow an epidemic of Johne’s Disease (pronounced yo knees)to destroy what is left of America’s family farms and infect millions of Americans with the bacteria that causes Crohn’s Disease, the human version of Johne’s Disease.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the agency charged with oversight of federal agricultural policy. For decades, the Secretary of Agriculture has been a corporate agriculture hack, concerned with the commodities market and protecting big agri-business, not family farms. While these presidential appointees conspired with industry insiders to promote corporate agriculture, the rate of infection of Johne’s Disease rose at what should have been an alarming rate, but no one in charge seemed to notice.

In 2004 the USDA estimated the infection rate to be at 20%. By some estimates, 68% of the nation’s milk is now infected with Johne’s, a three-fold increase in only four years, but the USDA doesn’t feel the need to mandate an eradication program. Why? Because the majority of infections are on factory farms. Nearly every confined dairy animal is infected; it would be expensive for confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to replace every infected animal. But that’s okay, because they don’t have to. The USDA is fine with this epidemic, and refuses any serious at dialogue about the subject.

The Risk to Humans

Crohn’s Disease, virtually unheard of in 1940, was on the rise by 1950, about the same time as the concept of factory farming showed up on the scene. Today, a generation later, up to two million Americans and even more Canadians are infected. Most cases of Crohn’s Disease are diagnosed in children, who will suffer a life of physical misery because of the debilitating symptoms for which there are treatments, but no cures.