courtesy of Joel McClain.
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BST, or rbST, or BGH is the Bovine Growth Hormone which may now be
legally injected into dairy cows. Dairies who elect not to use this
manufactured hormone are allowed to state ONLY that the milk/cheese
etc. comes from animals which were not treated with the substance,
and cannot state that the products are rbST-free, even though this
would be a true statement.
I was living in Illinois, just seven miles south of Wisconsin, when
the BGH scandal first made the news. According to news reports
there, the USDA had sent agents to approach individual dairies,
offering them the hormone. The farmers were told to expect a 40%
increase in milk yield, BUT the injections were to be kept secret
from the public and from the state’s department of agriculture.
All went along fine for the first few years, until treated cows
began to drop dead from extremely agressive forms of cancers to
their female organs. The farmers were unable to get compensation
from the USDA for the cows, and took them to court. Once this
happened, the state’s agricultural people, and later the entire
state legislature, figuratively speaking, had a cow. The farmers’
customers switched to non-BGH dairies, and the state went to work on
legislation to require labeling of any products from cows which had
been treated with BGH.
It was a case of David and Goliath, and David lost. Goliath had his
own inspectors reclassify the deaths of the cows, so that there
would be no mention of the hormone injections. The new federal law
means that other states, who may wish to challenge BGH, cannot do
so. So much for “states rights”.
The reason why this is ultimately of concern, is that humans are
genetically very similar to cows…that’s why we can drink cow milk,
and why in times of war, we have used cow blood for transfusions.
Trace amounts of BGH which theoretically could remain in the
products, perhaps if the injections were given incorrectly, would be
consumed by the end user of the product. Artificially manufactured
hormones, which have been linked to fatal cancers, are not the best
idea that I have heard this week!
When we heard the news from Wisconsin, we switched to dairy products
that were from Illinois only. Here in Texas, I’ve heard that Kroger
plans to carry only non-BGH dairy products. Hopefully, this trend
will continue. No matter WHAT the USDA says, we can VOTE with our
DOLLARS, until this hormone is not used.