Please help be a voice for CJD!!

Today was a rest day so I made sure to make my way to the library early to work on homework. Right when I was really starting to get things rolling, I had to stop and make my way to night class. We had a speaker tonight and her topic was agriculture. She is an amazing woman and definitely has some great teaching ideas. I was intrigued during the whole presentation.

She now works for the University of Minnesota, but prior she was an elementary teacher for numerous years. She definitely has experience! She presented lots of pedagogy for teaching agriculture and she focused on this area of study because she grew up on a dairy farm, she currently owns a farm with her husband and her passion is agriculture. Let's just say she knows her stuff about farming and more!

During her presentation she shared some pretty funny and interesting information about cows. She even brought in a true cow pie. That was great! Anyway, from there she went into how manure is a great resource for fertilizer and even fuel. She mentioned that Agriculture means survival and for that reason, we are lucky to be Americans because of our rich top soil. She showed us a book called "Hungry Planet" that shows what amounts for 1 week worth of food in each country and the US definitely outmeasured them all. Not only that, I guess we live in one of the safest states in the country when it comes to food production and distribution. She confirmed that it was our MN food investigators who concluded that the recent salmonila scare in tomatoes actually was coming from the peppers. The comment that hit my heart was when she said, "You see we are lucky just to be in America".

I definitely feel blessed to be an American, but I can testify of how that freedom does not come cheap. Being that she is a very intelligent woman about agriculture and she has spent much of her life on a farm, I felt this tug at my heart to ask her if she knew anything about CJD. I decided to be bold and make a move. When the class went to break, I approached the presenter and asked her if she has ever heard of "Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease" and she said, "no, what is that?". I don't blame her or think that she is ignorant. I didn't even know what CJD was until we were given the diagnosis, heck...the doctors couldn't even tell us much about it! I confirmed to her that it is otherwise known as the human form of mads cows disease and she said, "Oh yeah...I know that". I told her that my dad recently passed away from the disease and she was shocked to hear the news. I questioned her comments about the US being an enforcer of best practices when it comes to food and I relayed to her some of the information I have found through my research. She agreed with me about our failing "good" practices because of our lack of food inspectors. I told her several accounts of cows being fed animal parts, people mysteriously getting sick after working with butchering meat, and the fact that there has been mad cows disease confirmed in the US but supposedly there are no cases of it being spread to humans (remember over 98% are sporadic). I think she was a little caught off guard by my questions and comments, but I'm pretty sure it got her thinking.

When class reconviened she actually mentioned what was brought up to her during the break and wanted to clarify her previous comment. She said, "Yes, we are a lucky to be in America just for the reason that we have a lot of freedom to voice our concerns about issues and take initiative for change, but we are not perfect." That is true! There is definitely much not known to us that is being shoved under the carpet. It is our right to know more! Even an agriculture experts doesn't have a firm grasp on CJD and I'm quite positive that she is not alone. Her last comment before moving on to a new tangent was this, "We are one tiny step away from a huge food endemic, even by one toxin getting in our milk supply and instantly affecting millions of people." Well, can't the same be said for CJD in meat? If so, then the time bomb is quick to explode because it is already here. Please help me be a voice for CJD!!! Don't stop spreading the word!

Thanks,
Lacy

Ps. All the formentioned is not verbatim from the presentation. Orientation of words and comments were resummarized from what I recall hearing. I did tell the speaker that I would probably mention our conversation on my blog. She even asked for my blog address and I gave her the information. I hope she visits, makes comments and helps to raise awareness for CJD.

PPS. Please don't forget to tell me your comments and ideas about the t-shirt design below. I need to submit the final outline for the t-shirt by tomorrow. Thanks!