Headline over USA Today's story last Wednesday about Mexico and South Korea last week banning imports of U.S. poultry, joining most of Asia and the European Union.

Along with the near global ban on U.S. beef, this once again makes me wonder, how come it's OK to eat this stuff if the rest of the world won't? Are they stupid, or is our meat industry so politically powerful that it overrides food safety?

Reading newspapers from around the world, you realize that the U.S. avian flu epidemic and the mad cow problem are considered big news, though they rarely make the front page here.

I believe the science on this explosive, critical issue has been politicized, especially after reading in today's New York Times that a meat packing company in Kansas has offered to test every single one of its slaughtered cows for mad cow in order to be allowed to resume importing its beef into Japan.

Guess what? The government won't let them, saying the test they want to use isn't approved for use in the U.S., though it's the very same one used in the rest of the world.

The chief spokesman for the U.S. Cattleman's Association said, "It's unfortunate that one small company has broken ranks with overwhelming scientific opinion that U.S. beef is the safest in the world." Oh, OK.