老外看開放美國進口牛肉與狂牛問題

我不吃牛肉，因此一開始對這問題倒也沒多去瞭解，直到上禮拜看到有台大博士生朱政麒竟然吃牛屎來抗議美國牛肉進口，我才真的認真看了一下。

但如何判斷此事呢？馬英九政府基本上是不鳥人民抗議了，專家各擁立場，越聽越迷糊、民間看來雖頗有反對聲浪，但諸如右元帥這一類極端自由派的又認為根本沒問題。莫非我也是理盲喔？

我跳去the view from taiwan部落格看看老美自己怎麼看牛肉進口台灣的問題，結果發現裡面有個網友評論此事，寫得十分淺顯易懂，也讓我有了一個基本價值判斷出現：


the root of the problem are prions. Prions are deformed proteins that are nearly indestructible and appear to only need a copy of a regular protein in order to replicate. They are so indestructible that it appears to take a strong acid and over an hour of high heat in order to denature them.

If mad cow-free Taiwan is contaminated, with the long persistence of prions, there's no telling what part of the food chain will become tainted. What if the cattle (bones or other non-desirable parts) are given as feed to Taiwanese cows or other livestock? Mad cow doesn't even show up in humans until 8-10 years later. We don't even know the full extent of the disease yet because it takes so long to show symptoms and to get properly diagnosed for it.

問題根源在於普恩蛋白(Prion)，普恩蛋白是一種畸形蛋白質，很難消滅，且只要有一份正常的蛋白質就可自我複製，除非用強酸以及高溫加熱一小時，否則難以消滅。

目前台灣沒有狂牛問題，但未來若受到這種超強prions的污染，會很難判斷到底是哪個食物鏈出了問題。若牛肉（骨頭或內臟、腦等）被拿去餵台灣牛隻或其他牲畜怎麼辦？人體的狂牛症狀要8-10年才會出現，我們到現在都還不知道該疾病的全貌。

我沒去查證裡面說的究竟是不是真實，但聽起來蠻有一回事的，就算我不吃牛肉，誰曉得它會從哪裡冒出來？說不定我吃的豬肉也有問題哩。

但還有一段很有趣，講美國牛肉為何那麼便宜：

Of course, the whole problem with this whole scam is US beef is cheap because of some pretty gross agricultural engineering. They feed cows, who are by nature herbivores, reprocessed cow scraps as well as literally bullshit. Yes, they make the cows eat their own doodoo because it's high in protein.

重點是美國牛肉真的很便宜，而這又跟整個蠻噁心的農業養殖方式有關，牛屬草食性動物，因此他們就用加工過的牛雜碎與牛屎來餵養，沒錯，老美叫牛吃自己的大便，因為蛋白質成分很高。
真是有意思，台灣部落格老人趙老大說台灣牛都是灌水的，但看來美國牛則是灌大便，有趣有趣。


好了，以上文字，就是我自己的判斷，你可說很不科學，完全沒查證，就是我直覺覺得很有道理，但我接連看了好幾天文章，我決定選擇相信這一段。

轉載:http://so-eazy.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-post_03.html