The Department of Agriculture has announced that a cow on an Alabama farm has been diagnosed with BSE - Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy.

Other news: The U. S. Department of Agriculture plans to cut back drastically on testing cattle for BSE. We always knew they had our welfare in mind, didn't we?

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has some sage advice: become a vegetarian:

“This disturbing discovery should alert consumers to the many problems with meat-heavy diets,” says PCRM president Neal Barnard, M.D. “Mad cow disease is terrifying, but the truth is that all animal products are a health risk because they’re loaded with artery-clogging saturated fat and cholesterol.”

PCRM offers consumers a Vegetarian Starter Kit, which can be downloaded as a PDF file or ordered in printed form.