Uncertainty in Washington town

In this brown, desert valley known more for its wineries and apples, the talk Wednesday turned to “mad cow” disease -- and how little anybody around here knew about it.

News that the first U.S. case of the degenerative brain illness had been traced to a local dairy cow had this small town wondering exactly which farm it came from. Federal officials wouldn’t name names, and residents claimed not to know.

“You know as much as we do,” Mayor David Conradt told a small crowd of reporters gathered outside City Hall.

There was much commotion, however, outside one dairy farm southwest of this community of 1,900. A dirt road leading to the entrance was guarded Wednesday by men in four pickup trucks.

“This ain’t the farm,” said one man dressed in a red flannel jacket and blue jeans. “We’ve been harassed, and we’re tired of it.... The police are on their way, so I suggest you back up and leave.” Washington State Patrol and Mabton police cruisers were visible all day, with officers telling reporters that they would be cited, even arrested, if they trespassed on private land.

U.S. Department of Agriculture officials in Washington, D.C., did not identify the suspect farm, but they said it had 4,000 head of cattle at two sites in the Mabton area. The sick cow was identified as a Holstein that was slaughtered Dec. 9 at Verns Moses Lake Meats in Moses Lake, Wash., and then processed at three other facilities -- all of them in Washington state.

The owners of Verns Moses Lake Meats said they were voluntarily recalling 10,410 pounds of raw beef that might have been exposed to tissues containing the agent causing “mad cow” disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The disease eats holes in the brains of infected animals.

Mabton lies at the eastern end of the Yakima Valley, about 40 miles southeast of Yakima, Wash. The dozen or so streets are lined with small, one-story bungalows built one or two generations ago. Most of the people who live in them are farm or factory workers. Many of the homes are in disrepair, reflecting hard times for farmers.

A railroad cuts through the heart of the community just a few blocks from City Hall, which is a little bigger than a two-story garage. Right next door is the police department, housed in a converted garage. The tallest structures in town are the grain elevators that rise up like friendly missiles into what is usually a blue sky; the Yakima Valley averages 300 days of sun a year.

Nearly 30 wineries dot the valley, which local growers say lies near the same latitudes as the great wine-producing regions of France. The 80 or so dairy farms in Yakima County produced 1.3 billion pounds of milk last year. Milk production is the county’s second-largest agricultural commodity, behind apples.

“We just don’t know how ugly it’s going to get,” Rod VanDeGraff of VanDeGraff Ranches said of the “mad cow” scare. In fact, many residents here said they just didn’t know enough about the disease to be overly concerned.

“There’s some people probably a little nervous, but right now we’ve got mostly questions,” Conradt said. “Was it only one cow? How did it get it? What does it mean for the rest of us? For all we know, this could be a one-cow incident, and this whole thing could blow over just like that.”

Conradt said dairy farms make up just 9% of the farms in the eastern end of the valley. Most of the farms grow crops such as hops, corn, apples and mint.

Duane Desserault, a hops farmer with 300 acres, said he was more worried about the perception of danger to people than the danger from the disease itself. The perception that beef is unsafe could drive prices down, and that would affect all farmers in the region.

“The economic health of the whole valley could be hurt,” Desserault said.

A single case of “mad cow” in the Canadian province of Alberta in May caused export markets to refuse Canadian beef, and even the United States banned live cattle imports from its neighbor. Canada’s beef industry is still recovering from the scare.

Andy Deaton, co-owner of Jerry’s Valley Meats, a small processing plant outside Mabton, blames the media for the problems in Canada and for the scare he says is now beginning to envelop this community.

But many of Deaton’s customers aren’t paying any attention to the news. Phillip Lemons, a longtime Mabton resident, walked into Jerry’s Valley Meats late Wednesday morning and boomed in a cheery voice:

“Got any ‘mad cow’ meat?”

“No, we only have happy cows here,” Deaton replied.

Lemons proceeded to order 10 pounds of hamburger.