By CDM Staff
September 5, 2025

Snip

The United States has, for 70 years, been fighting a continuous aerial war against the New World screwworm, a parasite that eats animals alive: cow, pig, deer, dog, even human. (Its scientific name, C. hominivorax, translates to “man-eater.”) Larvae of the parasitic fly chew through flesh, transforming small nicks into big, gruesome wounds.

The United States government, to prevent the spread of this deadly parasite, blasted flies with radiation to make them sterile and then began intensive campaign of dropping these sterile flies south of the border.

While this effort held the deadly parasite at bay for a time, the containment efforts are now failing:

But in 2022, the barrier was breached. Cases in Panama—mostly in cattle—skyrocketed from dozens a year to 1,000, despite ongoing drops of sterile flies. The parasite then began moving northward, at first slowly and then rapidly by 2024… The U.S. subsequently suspended live-cattle imports from Mexico.

Now the Trump administration is taking new efforts to stop the spread of the deadly parasite, by shutting down livestock trade across the southern border:

US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has ordered the shutdown of livestock trade through southern border ports following the detection of a new case of New World Screwworm in Veracruz, Mexico—a massive red flag that the parasite is moving north toward the United States.

IS “MADE IN THE USA” ACTUALLY MADE IN THE USA?

When the average American is at the grocery store shopping for beef, you are likely to see labels that say, “MADE IN THE USA.” Sadly, and outrageously, these labels mean next to nothing:

“Made in the USA” product labels might seem self-explanatory, but in the food world they’re anything but.

Let’s take beef as an example. Under current rules, a cow could be born, raised and slaughtered outside the United States, but still have a “Made in the USA” or “Product of USA” label as long as the final product was packaged within U.S. borders.

The USDA has passed new regulations, that won’t take effect until 2026, that are aimed at tightening up the rules around “Made in the USA” labeling on beef and pork. Shockingly, however, labeling the country of origin is totally voluntary! Beef and pork are almost the only food products where country of origin labeling isn’t required:

“Virtually every other food product is labeled… You can pick up an apple, it'll say where it comes from. Orange, it'll have a sticker on it. Virtually every other product imported to the United States, except beef and pork, is required to have a label.”