Missouri cattleman David Luker wants to only sell beef that has been tested for mad cow disease. His customers want it, and Luker, who owns Missouri Valley Natural Beef in Chamois, Mo., is willing to have the necessary tests performed at his own expense. Given the public's concern about the disease, you'd think the federal government would welcome Luker's desire to have his beef tested. Unfortunately for Luker and a growing number of consumers, you'd be wrong.

While the U.S. Department of Agriculture is currently testing about 1 percent of the nation's 35 million cattle for the disease, it has threatened to prosecute producers who try to test their own beef. But where does the government get off telling producers that they may not test their own products for a deadly disease?

Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, a medium-sized meat packing company in Kansas, is wondering exactly that. The company, which, until recently, sold much of its beef in Asian markets, suffered huge losses when Japan banned imports of American beef after the discovery of mad cow disease here. Creekstone's solution was to offer to test its own cattle for the disease. Like David Luker, Creekstone is happy to pay for the testing itself and to comply with all USDA testing protocols. It has even built its own testing facility. Still, the USDA has indicated that only centralized government testing will be permitted.

The USDA's threats place companies like Creekstone and Missouri Valley in an impossible position. Face financial ruin, on the one hand, or government harassment and possible prosecution, on the other. Yet, all they want to do is sell the safest product possible and satisfy their customers by providing truthful information.

How can that be a bad thing?

The USDA claims that allowing producers to test their own beef might create the false impression that beef that is not tested is unsafe. But this amounts to an effort to control what people think by preventing them from obtaining truthful information. The USDA is free to educate the public about the utility of additional testing and the small risk of acquiring the disease. Creekstone and Missouri Valley should be equally free to disseminate truthful information about their products.

Indeed, that is their right under the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized the importance of the free flow of information and has prevented government from restricting truthful information out of a fear of what people may do with it. The ban certainly violates the spirit (if not the letter) of the 1st Amendment.

Preventing companies from providing truthful information about their products is an outrageous violation of their and their customers' rights. It is also hopelessly naive to think that the government can control what people think. A growing number of people are already questioning the safety of beef, in large part because of conflicting information on the disease. The USDA itself has sent mixed signals, maintaining that widespread testing is not necessary, even while steadily increasing the number of cattle to be tested in response to public pressure. And many other countries, as well as organic producer groups here, claim that nothing less than 100 percent testing is safe. Indeed, the USDA itself banned imports of beef from Canada last year when a few cases of mad cow disease were discovered there. It's more than a little disingenuous for the agency to now claim that Japan and other countries that are doing the same to the United States are acting irrationally.

As William Fielding, the chief operating officer of Creekstone, put it, "Our livelihood depends on this. The idea that the government can do a better job than we can of convincing consumers that our products are safe is just absurd." David Luker expressed a similar, if blunter, sentiment. "Government needs to get the hell out of agriculture and let the free market work." Amen to that.