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Essay on Outlaw Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone Now

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Outlaw Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone Now

For a moment, put yourself in John Elway's shoes. Imagine getting paid thousands of dollars to do a milk promotion. Now, would you still do the promotion if you knew the milk had come from a cow injected with hormones? The use of rBGH, Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, has become a concern in the dairy industry. The controversy is over whether or not the hormone is harmful to the cows and people.

In animals and humans, there is a growth hormone produced. This protein hormone, produced in the pituitary gland, is fundamental for normal growth, development, and health maintenance. It was discovered sixty years ago that by injecting cows with GH, the growth hormone extracted from …show more content…

Out of those one thousand people surveyed in Wisconsin, 75% of them stated they would pay as much as forty-four cents extra per gallon to avoid genetically engineered hormones in their milk. Keep in mind that Wisconsin is the leading milk producing state (Rachel. "Hormones...")

Monsanto and the Food and Drug Administration are speaking with the same voice on this situation. The Food and Drug Administration says, "There is 'virtually' no difference between milk from cows injected with rBGH and cows not injected." However, virtually means almost (Rachel. "Trouble...").

Scientific evidence from the United States, England and Europe shows that complications with the injected cows do exist. Some of the problems showing with the cattle are as follows: more pus from infected cows' udders, more antibiotics given to cows to treat those infections, an "off" taste and shortened shelf life due to the pus, perhaps higher fat content and lower protein content and more of a tumor-promoting chemical known as IGF-I. This chemical has been implicated in cancers of the colon, smooth muscle, and breast (Rachel. "Hormones...").

More milk is exactly what the United States doesn't need. The slightest increase in milk production can lead to a drastic decline in milk prices. "In 1990-1991, a 3% increase in milk production led to a 35% decline in dairy prices" (Atwater). Declines such as these really

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