Monsanto's Bovine Growth Hormone Being Driven Off The Market

The Organic Consumers Association has been working to educate and mobilize consumers and retailers (for example Starbucks) to boycott milk and dairy products derived from Monsanto's recombinant (genetically engineered) Bovine Growth Hormone.

The synthetic hormone is banned in most of the world, due to its links to prostate and breast cancer. Although it is still being injected into thousands of dairy herds in the U.S., grassroots pressure from health-minded consumers and public interest groups, like the OCA, have caused Starbucks, Chipotle, and many supermarket chains to put pressure on their dairy suppliers to stop using the drug.

Monsanto is furious that OCA and our allies have educated consumers about the dangers of rBGH, but with recent polls showing 80% of consumers concerned about artificial hormones in their food, there's little that the biotech giant can do to stop rBGH from being driven off the market.

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Down the Drain: Chemicals that Disrupt our Hormone Systems

Many man-made chemicals widely used today may be capable of causing hormone-disrupting effects in people, fish, and wildlife. 3 hormone-disrupting chemicals are the focus: phthalates, a class of chemicals used in products ranging from cosmetics to plastics; bisphenol A, a chemical used to make a type of hard plastic (polycarbonate), and to make an epoxy resin that lines food cans; and triclosan, an antibacterial ingredient found in numerous consumer products, including liquid hand soap, toothpaste, plastic cutting boards, and shoe insoles.

These chemicals have been detected in streams and rivers as a result of exposure to wastewater from our communities. Wastewater treatment is extremely effective at removing biodegradable pollutants such as human and food waste, but it cannot remove all of the unregulated tide of persistent chemicals washed down the drain.

Read more (Environmental Working Group)

Milk & Hormones

Somehow, in last weeks newsletter, we failed to provide the link for this interesting and funny piece from the Colbert Report:

Colbert Report - Milk & Hormones