Not to step on anyone's deals here...
but do a little bit of reading on mad cow disease before you go out and eat ground beef from cheap places. Just as a quick FYI, Mad Cow or BSE is generally contracted from eating the meat of ruminants (farm animals) that have eaten protein supplements made from other ruminants. (And yes, US beef farmers still use the bone/offal meal made from downer cows that is killing cows and, subsequently, humans in England. Downer cows are those that have become sick and unsteady on their feet, symptoms that are consistent with BSE.) Now, your average beef cow grazes when it is young and is then fattened up with grain before it is slaughtered. Dairy cows, on the other hand, are fed grain AND THEN PROTEIN SUPPLEMENTS MADE FROM BONE/OFFAL MEAL to enhance milk production. How does this affect the hamburgers you are eating? Dairy cows that cease milk production are slaughtered for their meat. Because they have been fed the protein supplement, their beef is too tough to be used in your average steak so they are ground up into hamburger. I know many of you think you are invincible and that BSE is just some stupid European thing. But let me give you some quick facts that may help put this into perspective:
1. In lab tests, variants of TSE (the mother group of the BSE disease) in nearly 15 different mammals (including cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens) have been found to be infectious to mice, guinea pigs, and chimpanzees.
2. The average incubation period of the BSE agent is several years. So you may be infected and won't know until years later.
3. BSE or bovine spongiform encephalopathy is essentially a normally digestable protein that has mutated into a form that cannot be digested. Thus, it invades the nerve cells of the brain killing them off and forming "holes" where nerve cells die.
4. Common symptoms of BSE include dizziness, blindness, inability to walk, slurred speach, inability to control bladder and/or bowel movements, and deterioration of most motor functions.
5. 100% of confirmed BSE cases have concluded with death of the patient.
So, I am not saying stop eating hamburger. Apparently, there are some farmers which only feed their cows grass and protein in the form of soy beans (I think Laura's lean beef boasts this type of feeding). But you might be better off if you avoided eating hamburger meat at cheap restaurants for awhile until the US govt or FDA takes definitive steps to protect your health. BTW, BSE has been found in Canada and, a few months ago, in a ranch in Texas. So, it is already here.
If you want to read more about the history of BSE, there is a great book called "Deadly Feasts" by Richard Rhodes. Current BSE articles are available at
http://www.mad-cow.org. Again, if you think I am just preaching, that's ok. Just remember that ALL BSE cases end in death, and so far, the beef industry has not taken adequate steps to prevent the disease from spreading.