Or else what?

Someone might get mad cow disease?

Let’s look at the stubborn facts. There are no cases of anyone in Canada having the human form of mad cow. Even if you ate the steaks off a mad cow you wouldn’t get mad cow because the prions that cause the disease live in the brains and spinal cord and are removed from the animal before it is sold to consumers. The chances of contracting mad cow disease is less than 1 in 30 million. You are more likely to be struck by lightning.

There are 350 million people in the United States and no cases of anyone with mad cow there. Our beef market is integrated with the U.S. and, accounting for those who don’t eat beef, one can argue that there is less than 1 chance in 370 million of getting the disease. But I’ll stick to Canada to make my case.

There was one case of a person who died from mad cow disease in Canada some years ago but he was eating beef in England when more than 120,000 cattle there were found infected; and in England people love to eat cattle brains as much as the Quebecois love poutine. So, that’s no reflection on Canadian beef.

Using Statistics Canada figures over one calendar year, you’re actually more likely to die from eating in general than from eating beef in particular. That’s because you’re 90 times more likely to die from chocking. The odds are 1 in 355,556. While the consumers association is busy worrying about beef, they must be apoplectic about vehicles and terrified to drive home after work. You’re at least 270 times more likely to die in a vehicle accident than from getting mad cow disease.

You’re also more likely to die in a plane crash or on the operating table or from being hit by a car while on a sidewalk. But there is no future in legislation to ban airplanes, surgeons or sidewalks.

Fear is a funny thing, difficult to tame with facts in an age where movie fantasy is more impressionable on the mind than critical thinking. The three cases of cattle found with mad cow disease in Canada would easily lead a CBC talking head to wonder: "Is this the tip of the iceberg?"

But there is no iceberg. There is no monster under the horizon for the simple reason that there are no cases of people with mad cow and highly improbable that there will be one.

Zero tolerance that demands elimination of all risk is not a solution as we all take greater risks than eating beef everyday of our lives regardless of whether or not we leave the house in the morning. You are at least four times more likely to drown in your bathtub than from getting mad cow disease.