With a new outbreak of mad cow desease I am seriously considering growing rabbits for myself and for sale. I have two that I am growing for the manure,and I grow their food, but are there a lot of restrictions on this. I am a city dweller who has a backyard garden plot and is fast becoming more then selfsufficient in the veg.dept.

-- Aagje Franken (Backyard@AOL.com), July 29, 2000

Answers

Aagje:

You can grow a low of rabbit in a small suburban back yard. Trick is to not get a neighbor to complain. On occasion, take them over a cooked rabbit or some composting material.

So far there has not been a single verified case of Mad Cow Disease in the U.S. The dairy sheep herds, and then only four individual sheep, were only suspected of it, so the government chose to take the radical approach of killing the entire herds. I don't think mad cow disease is anything to be worried about at the present time.

-- Ken S. (scharabo@aol.com), July 29, 2000.

Aagje -- Hope you'll take the word of someone who used to work for the Canadian Cattlemen's Association -- there haven't yet been any authentic documented cases here. Despite this, you should always cook your beef (especially hamburger) to well done. I know -- I like a good rare steak myself, but with things like e.coli and other bacterial diseases out there, why take a chance? Unless I'm raising it myself, or I know the rancher who did, I don't take the chance.

-- Tracy (trimmer@westzone.com), July 29, 2000.

Tracy:

No one has ever gotten out of life alive. Maybe Moses and some of the Old Testament people lived to be 800 or so, but eventually they died. Sort of like rolling the dice. When I order a steak it is medium-rare - pink on the inside and a little bloody. I also don't like my other beef overcooked. Unless you are young, old or have a weaken immune system e-coli and associates are only going to make you not stay far from a bathroom. If I went most places overseas would I order beef this way - NO! I happen to think the U.S. has the best food protection system in the world. I enjoy meat. Maybe it is denial, but I don't think of what every mouthful may be doing to me.

-- Ken S. (scharabo@aol.com), July 30, 2000.

Don't get me wrong -- I don't like cremated beef myself -- but if I'm at someone elses home (seldom) or out to a restaurant (even more seldom!) I order it medium well -- aka cooked through. IF I know where the meat came from (i.e., it was raised by one of the ranchers I know) then I don't hesitate. I'd be more concerned with getting e.coli from a grocery store lettuce than from the meat we eat.

My point was, there should be no worries of contracting any disease from meat if it is handled and cooked properly (i.e., respecting the fact that if you don't know who raised it, you don't know where it was prior to being parcelled up in the pretty plastic. I have more concerns about food ADDITIVES than disease, anyhow. One of the many reasons we got involved in this lifestyle was because I was sick of seeing my children with pale faces and no energy. As soon as we started feeding them real food that we either grew ourselves or bought from those who did, you wouldn't believe the change!!!

-- Tracy (trimmer@westzone.com), July 30, 2000.

Y2K did not happen because those of us who were concerned put the pressure on whoever could do something about it. Why allow cows to be fed with contaminated food in other parts of the world (if you are sure the USA doesn't) because eventually it will come to our country? E-coli is bad enough, and that is here to stay, but the mad cow stuff is really horrific!

-- Aagje Franken (Backyard@AOL.com), July 31, 2000.

If I recall correctly, mad cow and it's related diseases are caused by a protein which they have yet been unable to destroy comepletely by any means! E coli and the like can of course be destroyed by cooking to high enough temperatures. I hope that stuff never gets here and I hope they do evntualy find a way to destroy it. It is by far one of the worst diseases on can encounter in my opinion.

-- Bob Johnson (backwoods_bob_2000@yahoo.com), August 04, 2000.