The food we consume is injected with hormones that have caused girls to develop early. Hormones are given to young animals to make them gain weight faster. Dairy cows are injected with hormones to increase milk production.
In a study done by Cornell University on breast cancer and environmental factors found that in some cases, hormones injected into the food increased the risk of cancer.
The compliant of some is that there is not enough healthy livestock available. In a report by USDA, in 2008 we spent 76 billion dollars in the beef industry. The meat consumption for 2008 was 27.3 billion pounds.
Consumers should know what they are putting in their mouths. It is difficult to distinguish meat from clones and meat from non-clones, thus, labeling packaged meat can be a problem. People don’t have a hunger for cloned meat; just the world itself makes people cringe. It just seems non-kosher, downright disgusting that people would consider eating from a cloned animal (that’s if they know) without considering there maybe some effects in the long run. Imagine being at a baseball game and a guy comes around yelling, “hot dogs! Get your cloned hot dogs!”
Milk is known for its mustache modeling, source of calcium, decreasing risk of osteoporosis and tooth decay. However, it also has been known to cause health problems because of the hormones that are injected into the cows. No other country uses recombinant bovine growth hormone due to animal and human health concerns.
The FDA relied solely on one study administered by chemical giant Monsanto. The study was done on rats and never published. The result: feeding the rats homone-laced milk caused thyroid cysts and prostate problems. Monsanto’s rBGH product is called Posilac.
The FDA continues to assure us rBGH is safe for cows and humans, but in 1994, it prohibited dairies to say there was any difference between milk from rBGH-injected cows and milk produced naturally.
Canada (who doesn’t have a problem with health care) looked at the same study from Monsanto and was very troubled. Monsanto listed over twenty toxic side effects on its Posilac label that are caused by rBGH, according to the Organic Consumer Association.
A report by Rural Vermont, a non-profit advocacy group, revealed serious health issues with rBGH and cows. They included deformed births, hoof disease and painful bacterial infection of the udder, which produces fluids that are secreted into the milk.
Cows that are forced to produce unnaturally high amounts of milk became malnourished; as a result their milk lacked nutrients. Posilac injected into milk contains IGF-1, which is insulin growth factor-1. Humans also have this; increased levels have been linked to colon and breast cancer. What is even worse is rBGH cannot be detected in milk samples because it is like regular bovine somatotropin.
In 2007 grocery chain Kroger banned the use of rBGH treated milk in stores. Later in 2008, Starbucks and Wal-mart banned rBGH store brand milk products.
They say you are what you eat, but people don’t want to be cows or eat cancer. The FDA should do a better job regulating and protecting consumers from unsafe products on the market.
Milk hormone use raises questions, concerns
Published: Thursday, November 5, 2009
Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009
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