Hormonally treated meat has long been suspected of contributing to negative human health effects. In 1988, The Joint Food and Agricultural Organization/World Health Organization and the US Food and Drug Administration considered the residues found in meat from treated animals safe for consumers. However, the conclusion regarding the safety of the hormones has been reconsidered, where "many industry funded studies show no risk, independent studies suggest" that hormonal presence in meat and dairy products are disturbing to many (Minowa). Earlier studies that considered hormones safe were based on inadequate scientific data and uncertain assumptions. Chemical and hormone overload can affect both sexes, but children, pregnant women, and developing embryos are the most susceptible to additive hormones which pose potential health risks. Not only that, but hormonal presence in food is detrimental to animal health and the environment. Like the European Union, the United States should take action to ban the use of hormones in food and realize the negative consequences.
Since the 1950's , meat and dairy production has been on the rise and the easiest answer to modern factory farmers is to inject or feed hormones into their animals to make them fatter, faster. Farmers today produce cattle in a record time of as little as fourteen months. In 1950, a cow produced 5,300 pounds of milk in a year and in 2011 a cow produced 20,000 pounds (Table Hormones). The concern of scientists and consumers both is that traces of the hormones and chemicals will remain in the meat and pose a hazard to the humans who consume it. When hormones are injected into cattle, naturally occurring hormone levels increase seven to twenty times (Table Hormones). Epid...
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A growing issue in the world today is the use of antibiotics and growth hormones in animal production industry. However, for over sixty years Americans have been exposed to hormones on a regular basic when they consume beef. (Organic Consumer Association) On average eighty percent of all feedlot cattle are given hormones to help them grow at an increased rate. (Communication Foundation) “In 1988 the European Union banned the use of all hormone growth promoters.” (Organic Consumer Association)
Lane, Stuart. “Banning Animal Testing May Be Hazardous to Your Health.” Priorities Spring 2013: 23.
A growing issue in the world today is the use of antibiotics and growth hormones in animal production industry. However, for over sixty years Americans have been exposed to hormones on a regular basic when they consume beef. (1) On average eighty percent of all feedlot cattle are given hormones to help them grow at an increased rate. (2) “In 1988 the European Union banned the use of all hormone growth promoters.” (1)
Imagine sinking your teeth into a t-bone steak that has come from a steer that was treated with hormones, or enjoying a glass of rBGH treated milk. The steak and milk may not taste any different from the same untreated products, but the hormones they contain could both, directly and indirectly, have an impact on your health. The hormones that farmers in the U.S. administer to the cattle are dangerous and have negative effects on the people and the environment. Although America admits hormone use in cattle, the fact that Europe has banned hormone use raises many questions about the possible health risks these hormones may have on consumers.
Factory farming is a necessary component of our modern food production and supply system. In 2005, the U.S. produced 45.7 billion pounds of red meat. It efficiently produces and distributes huge quantities of food to feed the growing population of America. But the overfeeding of antibiotics in the U.S. meat industry has gotten to the extreme and it calls for a drastic change in order to prevent a potential public health crises.
... 80%. This solution, however, is considered too expensive and impractical to the cattle industry, and as a result is going unrecognized (Pollan 82). The food system is more concerned with profit, production, and efficiency, and this is why very little has changed in the last few decades. Although profit is a validly arguable for many people, the means in which to gain a high profit has become extremely unethical and hazardous to the general populations health.
...igh meat diets and cancer risk." The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 58(2):243-8, May 1999.
The beef hormone dispute represents a new type of ideologically-based trade dispute that is becoming more and more common . Hormone treated beef was first banned in 1989 by the European Community, and in 1995, the beef hormone case was one of the first cases brought to the newly formed World Trade Organisation (WTO). The US claimed that the ban on hormone treated beef was inconsistent with the new Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the SPS agreement), negotiated as part of the Uruguay Trade Round. This agreement established rules governing food safety regulations, stating that such regulations must be supported by scientific risk assessment . A WTO dispute panel ruled in favour of the United States, saying that the EU’s use of the precautionary principle (which justified the ban on the ground of scientific uncertainty about the health effects of hormones ) could not override the terms of the SPS agreement. The EU did not alter its regulations, prompting the United States to instigate tariffs against $116.8 million of European goods, mostly luxury items from France, Germany and Italy, countries that the US saw as the strongest supporters of the ban . These tariffs remained in place for years as attempts to resolve the dispute through bilateral negotiation repeatedly...
Over the years, meat eating has grown dramatically in many countries. Demand for meat production increased at a fearsome speed, which led to producers using pesticides and fertilizers on their crop. Because of our exponential population we could not begin to feed the population of the world without them. Farmers will need to increase the amount the chemicals used on their crops and animals to accelerate production process i...
An abundance of Americans have no idea that most of the food that they consume are either processed or altered in one way or another. “Almost all beef cattle entering feedlots in the United States are given hormone implants to promote faster growth. The first product used for this purpose is DES (diethylstilbestrol) it was approved for use in beef cattle in 1954. An estimated two-thirds of the nation's beef cattle were treated with DES in 1956. (Swan, Liu, Overstreet, Brazil, and Skakkebaek)” Many people enjoy the various meats that comes from a cow, but that would probably change if the consumers knew that cattle is one of the most processed meat source in the market today because of the synthetic hormones that the cows are given. “ The three synthetic hormones are the estrogen compound zeranol, the androgen trenbolone acetate, and progestin melengestrol acetate. (Swan, Liu, Overstreet, B...
What the American culture is used to is eating three meals with a few snacks in between a day, and two out of the three meals usually involve eating meat. Most people don’t realize the risks of eating meat. Today’s medical experts say that avoiding meat helps you avoid saturated fat. They have found out from studies that women who eat meat daily have a fifty percent greater risk of developing heart disease than vegetarian women and a sixty-eight percent greater risk in men (staff writer). People may not know about serious diseases meat can obtain such as, mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease. In the September 1999 issue of the Emerging Infectious Diseases, approximately 76 million food borne illnesses- resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths occur in the United States each year from improperly cooked or diseased meat (Licher). That is a lot! You can also get salmonella poisoning from meat. People think that the problems come from eating red meat and are opting for fish over steak, but new evidence proves that fish can cause health problems too, risks that can’t be cooked away. This is a growing problem called histamine poisoning (Peck). Children are learning at a younger age that they don’t like meat, maybe because they don’t like the taste, or maybe it’s because they have a fear of eating their favorite cartoon or movie hero. For example, the pig from the movie “babe”.
In April 2008 the In Vitro Consortium first met at the Norwegian Food Research Institute. The consortium is “an international alliance of environmentally concerned scientists striving to facilitate the establishment of a large scale process industry for the production of muscle tissue for human consumption through concerted R&D efforts and attraction of funding fuels to these efforts.”Meat in both its production and its consumption has a number of destructive effects on not only the environment and humans but also live stock. Some of these effects are antibiotic resistant bacteria due to the overuse of antibiotics in livestock, meat-borne pathogens (e. coli), and diseases associated with diets rich in animal fats (diabetes). Meat consumption all over the world is increasing making meat a global issue. As a result many researchers have been trying to create meat substitutes to minimize the impact of consumption. Substitutes, to date, have been made from soybeans, peas, or even from animal tissues grown in a culture.
“Genetically modified foods are a "Pandora's box" of known and unknown risks to humans and the environment. They have been forced onto the American public by multinational biotech and agribusiness corporations without adequate oversight and regulation by the United States government (Driscoll, SallyMorley, David C).”Genetically Modified Food is food which has been chemically altered by scientists during the production process to give the food more nutrients, better appearance, and a longer shelf-life (Rich, Alex K.Warhol, Tom). The importance of this issue is that these GMO’s can actually have a negative effect in our society in general. It could mutate in a negative way and cause cancer or other diseases. Genetically modified food should be strictly controlled due to its various detrimental effects on the environment, human health, and potentially insect/animal effects.
There are some challenges that still need to be recognized. Some people may say that farmer’s markets aren't beneficial to the community because farmers could use GMO seeds or different pesticides in the growing process of the fruits and veggies. According to Seeds of Deception, “A GMO is the result of a laboratory process where genes from the DNA of one species are extracted and artificially forced into the genes of an unrelated plant or animal”. Many people prefer non GMO fruits and vegetables. “Many pesticides have estrogen like actions in the body (xenoestrogens) and may be linked to breast and uterine cancer as well as other chronic pain and health issues. This has been demonstrated in animal models," Bailey told Medical Daily. The goal of fruits and vegetables are to get healthy, but these GMO seeds and different pesticides could damage the nutrients in fruits and cause even further health
Consuming foods that have been genetically altered have serious health risks based on research done on rats by The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM), an international organization of physicians. Risks include infertility, immune system problems, accelerated aging, disruption of insulin and cholesterol regulation, gastrointestinal problems and organ damage. Many AAEM physicians have prescribed non-GMO diets for all patients to improve health conditions. Jeffrey M. Smith, an advocate for non-GMO, says scientific research shows the link of GM food to thousands of sick, sterile, and dead livestock; thousands of toxic and allergic reactions in humans; and damage t...