That was the headline over a recent New York Times story about a small company in Kansas, slowly going out of business because of the Japanese ban on American beef since the discovery of a mad cow in the U.S.

The company hit on a simple and seemingly excellent solution for its problem: do as the Japanese wish, and test every cow.

They were all set to go, until the U.S. Department of Agriculture stepped in, under tremendous pressure from the American Meat Institute and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, and told little Creekstone Farms they were not permitted to test their cows.

The government said there was "no scientific justification" for testing.

They went to say that certifying some beef for Japan as disease-free might confuse American consumers into thinking that untested beef was not safe.

The Cattlemen's Association said testing young animals, as Creekstone wants to do, "is like testing kindergartners for Alzheimer's."

Terry Stokes, CEO of the Cattlemen's Association, said, "If you let one company step out and do that, other companies would have to follow."

To which bookofjoe says, can't happen soon enough.

Meanwhile, Australian beef producers are testing every cow and getting record prices for their beef in Japan.

The one mad cow wasn't a fluke, believe me. There are others out there, many others, and they've already entered the food chain.

The reason the cattle industry fears universal testing is that they too know that many cows would test positive, including some without any outward evidence of having mad cow.

The beef industry would collapse, and we could well see the beginning of a generalized recession.

When - not if - the first American case of mad cow in a human is reported, you don't want to be heavily invested in McDonald's, would be my understatement of the year to date.