Girl babies in China with breasts.Americans, aren't you just a little tired of Monsanto
and what it has done to you?
Your veterans.
Their children.
Your foods.
Your milk.
And now your babies.
Read about what is happening in China, has happened in Puerto Rico, and is going on in America but not quite so publicized considering Monsanto is so powerful and protected by stringent laws courtesy of its connections in the White House and the FDA. Are you willing to passively sit back and let them poison your babies? Your grand-babies?
People are very upset about this, and for good reason. Female infants in China who have been fed formula have been growing breasts.
According to the official Chinese Daily newspaper, medical tests performed on the babies found levels of estrogens circulating in their bloodstreams that are as high as those found in most adult women. These babies are between four and 15 months old. And the evidence is overwhelming that the milk formula they have been fed is responsible.
Synutra, the company that makes the baby formula consumed by these babies, says it's not their fault. They insist that "no man-made hormones or any illegal substances were added during the production of the milk powder."
Then what is the source of the hormones? A Chinese dairy association says the hormones could have entered the food chain when farmers reared the cows. "Since a regulation forbidding the use of hormones to cultivate livestock has yet to be drawn up in China," says Wang Dingmian, the former chairman of the dairy association in the southern province of Guangdo, "it would be lying to say nobody uses it."
Bovine growth hormones are used in China, as they are in the U.S., to promote greater milk production.
An extraordinary number of food products sold in the U.S. today come from China. Could some of this tainted formula be making its way to the U.S.?
There is currently no way for consumers to know whether infant formula they might purchase has been made with milk products from China.
If this problem appears in the U.S., who will be held responsible? The retailers? The importers? The Chinese producers? Will anyone be called to account?
As I describe in my books The Food Revolution and Diet For a New America, and on my website, this isn't the first time something like this has happened. In the 1980s, doctors in Puerto Rico began encountering cases of precocious puberty. There were four-year-old girls with fully developed breasts. There were three-year old girls with pubic hair and vaginal bleeding. There were one-year-old girls who had not yet begun to walk but whose breasts were growing. And it wasn't just the females. Young boys were also affected. Many had to have surgery to deal with breasts that had become grossly swollen.
Another side effect for boys is they reach puberty much later than the norm, often have feminine traits and smaller genitalia.
Writing a few years later in the Journal of the Puerto Rico Medical Association, Dr. Carmen A. Saenz explained the cause. "It was clearly observed in 97 percent of the cases that the appearance of abnormal breast tissue was...related to local whole milk in the infants."
The problem was traced, and found to stem from the misuse of hormones in dairy cows. When Dr. Saenz was asked how she could be certain the babies and children were contaminated with hormones from milk rather than from some other source, she replied simply:
"When we take our young patients off... fresh milk, their symptoms usually regress."
Along with China, the U.S. is today one of the few countries in the world that still allows bovine growth hormones to be injected into dairy cows. Though banned in Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and most of Europe, the use of these hormones in U.S. dairy is not only legal, it's routine in all 50 states.
The U.S. dairy industry assures us that this is not a problem. But there is a very real problem, and its name is Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1). Monsanto's own studies, as well as those of Eli Lilly & Co., have found a 10-fold increase in IGF-1 levels in the milk of cows who have been injected with bovine growth hormone (BGH).
Why is that a problem? A report by the European Commission's authoritative international 16-member scientific committee not only confirmed that excessive levels of IGF-1 are always found in the milk of cows injected with BGH. It also concluded that excess levels of IGF-1 pose serious risks of breast, colon and prostate cancer.
How serious is the increased risk? According to an article in the May 9, 1998 issue of the medical journal The Lancet, women with even a relatively small increase in blood levels of IGF-1 are up to seven times more likely to develop breast cancer than women with lower levels.
IGF-1 that is consumed by human beings in dairy products is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream. It isn't destroyed by human digestion. And pasteurization is no help. In fact, the pasteurization process actually increases IGF-1 levels in milk.
What's a consumer to do?
If at all possible, breast-feed your babies, and support breast-feeding friendly workplaces and other environments. It's hard to overstate the health advantages of breast-feeding for both mother and baby. They are enormous, and particularly so today, when the possibility exists that commercially available infant formula could be contaminated with excess hormones.
If you are going to buy dairy products, try to get them from organic sources. Organic milk products by law can't be produced with bovine growth hormone (BGH). Or look for dairy products that specifically say they are produced without BGH (also called recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST).
Ben & Jerry's ice cream uses only milk and cream from dairy farms that have pledged not to use BGH.
If you're going to eat cheese, remember that American-made cheeses are likely to be contaminated with BGH and excess levels of IGF-1 unless they're organic or labeled BGH-free. Most cheeses that are imported from Europe are safe, though, since much of Europe has banned the hormone.
Canadian cheese is safe as well.
As if that wasn't enough, Monsanto has also insistently sought to make it illegal for dairy products that are BGH-free to say so on their labels, unless the labels also included wording exonerating BGH.
How does Monsanto justify such a dangerous condition?
They say that allowing retailers to tell consumers that a dairy product is BGH-free shouldn't be allowed, even if it's true, because it unfairly stigmatizes BGH.
They say that labeling natural milk as BGH-free is unfair to their milk because theirs is, as they know but do not admit, laden with poisons and pus. This certainly matches their omnipotent attitude toward the results of their Agent Orange on soldiers and victims alike, isn't it?
Monsanto acts as though accurately labeling products would make them the victim of some irrational cultural bias. But the company's products are, in fact, responsible for untold damage to human health.
My compassion is not for Monsanto. My heart goes out to the babies in China and their families, to the children in Puerto Rico and their families, and to the millions of others who have been or will be adversely affected by the abuse of hormones in dairy production.
To learn how to steer clear of potentially dangerous foods and household products, and how to make healthier, safer, cost-saving choices, read The New Good Life: Living Better Than Ever in an Age of Less. For more information about my work, and if you like, sign up for my email list, please visit my website, johnrobbins.info.
Despite warnings from scientists, such as Dr. Michael Hansen from the Consumers Union and Dr. Samuel Epstein from the Cancer Prevention Coalition, that milk from rBGH injected cows contains substantially higher amounts of a potent cancer tumor promoter called IGF-1, and despite evidence that rBGH milk contains higher levels of pus, bacteria, and antibiotics, the FDA gave the hormone its seal of approval, with no real pre-market safety testing required.
Moreover, the FDA ruled, in a decision marred by rampant conflict of interest (several key FDA decision makers, including Michael Taylor, previously worked for Monsanto), that rBGH-derived products did not have to be labeled, despite polls showing that 90% of American consumers wanted labeling ~ mainly so they could avoid buying rBGH-tainted products.
All of the major criticisms leveled against rBGH have turned out to be true. Since 1994, every industrialized country in the world, except for the US, has banned the drug. In 1998, Canadian government scientists revealed that Monsanto's own data on feeding rBGH to rats, carefully concealed by the company and the FDA, indicated possible cancer dangers to humans.
Since rBGH was approved, approximately 40,000 small and medium-sized US dairy farmers, 1/3 of the total in the country, have gone out of business, concentrating milk production in the hands of industrial-sized dairies, most of whom are injecting their cows with this cruel and dangerous drug.
In a 1998 survey by Family Farm Defenders, it was found that mortality rates for cows on factory dairy farms in Wisconsin, those injecting their herds with rBGH, were running at 40% per year. In other words, after two and a half years of rBGH injections most of these drugged and supercharged cows were dead. Typically, dairy cows live for 15-20 years.
Alarmed and revolted by rBGH, consumers have turned in droves to organic milk and dairy products or to brands labeled as rBGH-free. Nonetheless, use of the drug has continued to increase in the US (and in nations like Brazil and Mexico) especially in large dairy herds, so that currently 15% of America's 10 million lactating dairy cows are being injected with rBGH.
Compounding the problem of rBGH contamination, most of the nation's 1500 dairy companies are allowing the co-mingling of rBGH and non-rBGH milk, thereby contaminating 80-90% of the nation's milk and dairy supply (including all of the major infant formula brands). For a list of organic and rBGH-free dairies in the US consult the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) website.
The major reason that rBGH is still on the market is that it is not labeled. Supermarket dairy managers, following guidelines circulated by the rBGH and biotech lobby, routinely lie to consumers, telling them either that rBGH is not in their products, or that there's no way to tell, and reassuring them that the FDA has certified that rBGH is safe.
Responding to the global controversy surrounding the drug, Monsanto put BGH for sale in 1998, but there were no takers. Transnational PR firms working with the biotech industry have categorized Monsanto's handling of the rBGH controversy as a "public relations disaster."
Starbucks has been a target as 3/4 of the 32 million gallons of milk it buys every year in the US are coming from dairies that allow cows to be injected with rBGH.
Once Starbucks' 15 million customers learn that most of the latte or cappuccino drinks they're paying top dollar for (3/4 of the volume of these drinks are milk) contain an extra dose of pus, antibiotics, and growth hormones and that Fair Trade and organic coffee constitute less than one percent of company sales, they may decide to take their business elsewhere. Total annual sales for the company are approximately $2.5 billion.
The worst nightmare of Monsanto and the biotech industry is starting to materialize:
a mass-based consumer and environmental marketplace pressure campaign in the heartland of GE foods-North America. A number of major US food companies are already responding to public pressure and starting to sweep GE foods off their products lists and their grocery shelves: Gerber (baby food), Heinz (baby food), Frito-Lay (at least for their corn), Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Trader Joe's, and even McDonald's (at least for their French fries).
Judging by the discomfort of this cow's oversized udders, PETA might already have them in line for more protests. This is cruel to millions of cattle.rBGH/BST Milk Wars Handbook
rBGH (recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone), is a genetically engineered (GE) potent variant of the natural growth hormone produced by cows. Manufactured by Monsanto, it is sold to dairy farmers under the trade name POSILAC. Injection of this GE hormone forces cows to increase their milk production by about 10%.
Monsanto and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) insist that rBGH milk is indistinguishable from natural milk and safe to cows and consumers.
However: rBGH makes cows sick. Monsanto has been forced to admit to about 20 veterinary health risks on its Posilac label including mastitis and udder inflammation.
rBGH milk is contaminated by pus from mastitis induced by rBGH, and antibiotics used to treat the mastitis.
rBGH milk is contaminated by the GE hormone which can be absorbed through the gut and induce immunological effects.
rBGH milk is chemically and nutritionally very different from natural milk.
rBGH milk is supercharged with high levels of a natural growth factor (IGF-1), excess levels of which have been incriminated as major causes of breast, colon, and prostate cancers.
rBGH factory farms pose a major threat to the viability of small dairy farms. Thus, rBGH enriches Monsanto while posing risks but no benefits to the entire U.S. population.
Although there have been no long-term tests of the hormone's health effects on humans, some preliminary studies link BGH with increased risks of breast cancer, colon cancer, diabetes and hypertension.
BGH treated cows are more susceptible to "mad cow disease", udder infections and birthing deformed calves.
Milk and other products from BGH treated cows may contain less protein and higher levels of saturated fat as well as pus, bacteria and antibiotics.
Even though the FDA has acknowledged some of these dangers, they maintain approval of BGH's use in beef and dairy products and have refused to require labeling of products derived from use of BGH.
To find out more about BGH contact the Pure Food Campaign at 1-800-253-0681.
Candidates for a Male Subcutaneous Mastectomy, the result of rBGH in milk.
Excerpt from Pure Foods website
Both the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) and the Consumer's Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, have warned of the potential hazards to human health caused by consuming products derived from rBGH-treated cows.
While rBGH is banned in Europe and Canada, and has been boycotted by 95 percent of US dairy farmers, the FDA, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture continue to license the drug (and other new genetically engineered foods) without pre-market safety tests.
Thanks to industry pressure, genetically engineered foods are NOT required to carry identifying labels.
Why is there fear in open discovery by these companies to disclose the content and data on these products?
According to the US Federal Office of Management and Budget the projected increase in milk production caused by rBGH introduction will cost American taxpayers an additional $116 million of dollars for further price supports in 1995 alone.
And what about the cows? The drug company responsible for the marketing of this absurd drug under the trade name Posilac is Monsanto. In their words: Use of POSILAC has been associated with increases in cystic ovaries and disorders of the uterus...digestive disorders...enlarged hocks and lesions (lacerations, enlargements, calluses) of the knee.
Holistic Healing Web Page CONSUMER WARNING
Genetically engineered growth hormones COULD BE IN YOUR MILK AND DAIRY PRODUCTS.
Starting on February 3, 1994, milk, cheese, butter, ice cream, yogurt, beef and infant formula sold and consumed throughout the United States will be laced with genetically engineered recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) ~ also known as "Bovine Somatotropin" or BST.
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of rBGH in dairy cows without long-term testing on the hormone's health effects on consumers.
The (FDA) has also refused to require labeling of milk and other dairy products derived from use of the genetically engineered hormone, even though more than 90% of consumers favor labeling of rBGH products so they can avoid buying them.Whoever thought the FDA was here for consumer protection? How naive! HERE ARE SIX THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW *BEFORE* YOU BUY MILK and DIARY PRODUCTS IN ANY STORE.
IF YOU ARE AGAINST GENETICALLY ENGINEERED HORMONES, ANTIBIOTICS and PUS IN YOUR MILK and DAIRY PRODUCTS, *YOU BETTER ACT NOW!*
Pure Foods Campaign (PFC) claims that Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler "lied to Congress" when he assured legislators that bovine somatrotropin (BST), the genetically engineered growth hormone, was destroyed by pasteurization.
Kessler's assurance, which spared Monsanto (BST's manufacturer) the expense of any further research, was based on a scientific paper written by Paul Groenewegen, a graduate student from Guelph, Canada.
According to PFC, Groenewegen was "outraged" to learn that the FDA had misrepresented his research.
Far from destroying BST, Groenewegen's research showed that subjecting BST to pasteurization temperatures 120 times normal only destroyed 19 percent of the BST in milk. PFC also charges that the FDA will not release research that "proves that lab animals got cancer from BST," despite numerous Freedom of Information Act requests.
Meanwhile, Monsanto stoops to actually stating that injecting this hormone into cows helps stop global warming as if they care when they actually push ethanol? And it is so good to see progress being made to get their Posilac garbage out of our milk.
A letter writing campaign in Pennsylvania by consumers and advocacy groups helped to overturn their bid. We can do it state by state if we truly do care about what we put into our bodies and about having proper disclosure of that.
Milk and dairy products
Does pasteurized milk really do the body good?
During the 1930's, Dr. Francis M. Pottenger conducted a 10-year study on the relative effects of pasteurized and raw milk diets on 900 cats.
One group received nothing but raw whole milk, while the other was fed nothing but pasteurized whole milk from the same source.
The raw milk group thrived, remaining healthy, active and alert throughout their lives, but the group fed on pasteurized milk soon became listless, confused and highly vulnerable to a host of chronic degenerative ailments normally associated with humans, including heart disease, kidney failure, thyroid dysfunction, respiratory ailments, loss of teeth, brittle bones, liver inflammation, etc. But what caught Dr. Pottenger's attention most was what happened to the second and third generations... more on A Study in Nutrition by Dr. Francis M. Pottenger, Jr., MD
Milk and dairy products: Once upon a time, milk was teeming with life forces. Today, supermarket milk is a brew of hormones, chemicals, DDT, fungicides, defoliants and radioactive fallout, produced by artificially inseminated creatures forced to stand around in muddy feed lots all day long.
RAW organic milk does the body good
The link between breast cancer and milk Dr. Plant's conviction that dairy products can cause cancer arises from the complex chemical makeup of milk.
"Published research shows that rBGH injected into dairy cows substantially increases the concentration of IGF-1 in cow's milk.
IGF-1 is a hormone that appears naturally in humans and cows. The IGF-1 in cows is chemically identical to the IGF-1 in humans. IGF-1 regulates cell growth, which causes cells to divide, particularly in children.
Feeding relatively low doses of IGF-1 to mature rats for only two weeks resulted in statistically significant and systemic effects: increased body weight; increased liver weight; increased bone length; and decreased epiphyseal width. These results confirm prior theoretical predictions.
In layperson's terms: this drug may well be dangerous to humans, especially infants and children. The FDA has completely failed to investigate the effects of long-term feeding of IGF-1 and genetically engineered milk on growth, in infant rats or infants of any other species.
Read about rBGH, IGF-1, and Cancer
Anti-food defamation laws a new threat to free speech in the USA
"Food Slander" Is Now a Crime (in Several States)
Excerpt from Pure Foods Campaign (PFC) by Gar Smith
In Georgia, South Dakota, Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Colorado and Louisiana it is now against the law to publicly criticize corporate food products under so-called "food disparagement" laws promoted by agriculture, chemical and biotechnology industry lobbyists. Similar laws are under consideration in Ohio and Illinois. "These laws are intended to curtail the right to free speech, to make it illegal to hand out leaflets or to dump rBGH milk in the gutter," Cummings charged.
"Instead of giving us affordable, healthy, natural, clean food ~ safety-tested and clearly labeled to enable consumers to exercise free choice ~ the powers-that-be seem intent upon taking away our right to know what's been done to our food," Cummings stated.
rBGH Court Case in Tampa Puts Reporters' Freedom of Speech on Trial
What You Can Do:
A letter writing campaign in Pennsylvania by consumers and advocacy groups helped to overturn their bid. We can do it state by state if we truly do care about what we put into our bodies and about having proper disclosure of that.
BioDemocracy and Organic Consumers Association invites activists to stage milk-dumps around the country to call attention to "food slander" laws. For more information, contact: PFC, 860 Highway 61E, Little Marais, MN 55614; (218) 226-4146; (800) 451-7670.
BioDemocracy and Organic Consumers Association
http://www.purefood.org/ 1-800-253-0681
Organic Consumers Association/BioDemocracy. We publish two electronic newsletters: Organic View and BioDemocracy News.
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