Artifical Bovine Growth Hormone
It’s hard to find anyone outside of the FDA or some state regulatory agencies who speak out in favor of rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone), aka rBST (recombinant bovine somatotropin).
Monsanto, which used to market the hormone under the name Posilac®, (but isnow trying to sell the brand) avoided the term “recombinant” and talked about bST (Bovine somatotropin) while emphasizing that it is a naturally occurring protein that all diary cows make on their own. They implied that this naturally occurring protein was what they are selling and what farmers are injecting in cows.
But, Posilac is really rBST –the key letter “r” standing for “recombinant.” And, as Shakespeare said, “there’s the rub.”
Wikipedia defines recombinant DNA as “a form of artificial DNA which is engineered through the combination or insertion of one or more DNA strands, thereby combining DNA sequences which would not normally occur together.” In and of itself, the recombinant DNA technique is not all bad. That’s the way most insulin to treat diabetes is produced.
But using the technique to increase milk production in dairy cows has been shown to cause several problems, most of them for the cows, but some for milk drinkers as well.
According to the Center For Food Safety (http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/rbgh2.cfm) regulatory bodies in both Canada and Europe have rejected the use of the hormone due to “numerous animal and human health concerns.”
One of the concerns is that the antibiotics that are used to treat the increased udder infections that seem to go hand in and with the use of rBGH/rBST, ultimately end up in our blood stream giving rise to the growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Another is that the levels of a certain hormone are higher in rBGH/rBST treated cows, a hormone that makes its way into our bodies and has been shown to increase the growth of cancers of the breast, prostrate and colon.
Since there seems to be some disagreement among scientists as to the effect of drinking milk from rBGH/rBST treated cows, some milk producers are marketing milk that is labeled rBGH/rBST—free. Monsanto got a few states to try to ban the "hormone free" labels claiming that it put milk with the hormone at a disadvantage, but wisdom prevailed. It seems the marketplace wants to give those consumers who disagree with Monsanto and the FDA a choice.
You can find more about rBGH/rBST at Posilac® at:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/rbghlink.cfm