I AM sick and tired of the meat and livestock industry being canned with claims of being a danger to people's health and animal welfare.
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My breaking point was on Saturday night at the pub, where I overheard a woman saying she wouldn't eat steak because she had heard "for a fact" of uncleaned meat meal trucks being used to transport grain to feedlots.
This woman happily explained to all within earshot that the consumption of animal protein by cattle caused mad cow disease.
The ridiculous nature of her statements forced me to enter into the conversation and ask 'where she received this information?'
She had no medical or veterinary training but insisted she knew what she was talking about.
I asked her if she knew what the disease was really called, she didn't.
Luckily I was able to inform her that the correct title was bovine spongiform encephalitis.
She responded that she didn't care what it was called, but was confident that mad cow disease existed in Australian beef and the clean meat image was all a smoke screen.
I was close to losing my sense of humour.
But as sensibly as I could, I explained that the Australian livestock industry, beef in particular, was subject to stringent testing regimes and lifetime traceability.
And that national vendor declarations dealt specifically with the issue of meat products being fed to livestock, and that falsely declaring had tough penalties.
I finished my argument by suggesting that if she didn't have a complete grasp of the topic she was talking about that it might be better not to comment at all.
She finished the debate by informing me that I was an apologist for an industry that mistreated animals on a grand scale, regularly lied to consumers about the safety of meat products and anybody that propagated animals for profit was a criminal.
Unfortunately for this woman, most of the assembled crowd were farmers who went from being interested observers to active participants.
Unsurprisingly she left with a few choice words regarding my intelligence and parentage, while I left the pub with a warm glow.
It is satisfying to educate somebody about a staple of life and I went home feeling a degree of satisfaction at a job well done.
Too bad I had to wake up to the news that bacon was bad for your health!
