J500 Media and the Environment

Photo Credit: public energy

Maybe you heard about the 143 million pounds of beef that was recalled last weekend, a recall that was four times bigger than any beef recall in U.S. history. This is a lot of beef. To give you an idea of how much beef that is, 143 million pounds of beef could feed two hamburgers to every man, woman, and child in the U.S. You can check out the undercover video that started the recall here, but I warn you, it is not for the faint of heart.

The recall went into effect because “downer cows” were being accepted for slaughter and subsequently being consumed. Downer cows are cows that can no longer walk to slaughter. After the mad cow epidemic hit England in the 90s and the first U.S. case cam about in Washington in 2003, the U.S. banned downed cows from going to slaughter for fear of downer cows having mad cow disease. A recent exception last year allowed downed cows for slaughter so long as they were reinspected for illness, an exception that was obviously being exploited.

I walked into Local Burger this morning to find a pamphlet concerning legislation that would make the labeling of food as “rBGH-free” illegal. This means farmers who go through the effort to sell rBGH-free milk would no longer be able to label their products as such. This is both a major selling point for producers and a major concern for consumers. rBGH, recombinant bovine growth hormone, and all its synthetic forms (including Monsanto’s Posilac) are given to cows to increase milk production.

What’s so bad about increased milk production and cheaper milk? Well, there are concerns that rBGH milk leads to an increased risk of cancer. rBGH use has also been shown to increase the amount of pus in milk, birth defects in calves, mastitis (udder infection) in cows, and use of antibiotics needed to treat cows. These concerns have led Canada, Japan, the EU, Australia, New Zealand, and other nations to ban the use of the growth hormone. Monsanto, after being denied at the federal level, is pushing on a state to state level to ban the labeling of food as rBGH-free. With little to no international market for their product, Monsanto is trying its best to muffle these concerns and keep selling the hormones.

Now that you are up to speed on downed caws, the beef recall, and concern over rBGH, why do I bring all of them together in this post?

What the use of rBGH may be doing is increasing the number of downed, sick cows not fit for consumption. This is due to udder infection, the related increase in antibiotic use, and the development of antibiotic-resistant super bugs. Might cows be falling because rBGH is making them sick?

This hypothesis may need more testing, but reports from the Animal Wildlife Institute tend to agree. And as companies like Starbucks, Chipotle, and Ben and Jerry’s remove rBGH milk and milk products from their menus due to concern, you kind of get the feeling that people don’t want anything to do with the stuff.

If you don’t want anything to do with the stuff and want to prevent anti “rBGH-free” labeling in Kansas, you can email your legislators Senator John Vratil at jvratil@lathropegage.com andRepresentative Tim Owens at towens10@kc.rr.com. You can check out the Eat Local KC post for more information.

Bobby Grace