Jim Hightower in his There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road Except Yellow Lines and Dead Armadillos has a chapter about mad cow disease which in England was spread by processing dead cows into dietary supplements which were fed to living cows; eating meat from mad cows has been acknowledged to cause a lethal disease in humans. In the U.S., it is common in beef factory farms to feed the same kind of supplements to the cattle. In addition to dead cows, renderers turn dead horses, pigs, sheep, house pets, and road kill into these supplements (which are fed not only to cattle but to other meat producing animals). There have been a few cases of a disease much like mad cow disease striking humans here, as well, and there are probably far more than have been reported. It's all organically grown products for me from here on out. (Read the book if you can find it.) --seed