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Transcript

What the American Cancer Institute has to say:

Summary

The available evidence shows that the use of rBGH can cause adverse health effects in cows. The evidence for potential harm to humans is inconclusive. It is not clear that drinking milk produced using rBGH significantly increases IGF-1 levels in humans or adds to the risk of developing cancer. More research is needed to help better address these concerns.

The increased use of antibiotics to treat rBGH-induced mastitis does promote the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but the extent to which these are transmitted to humans is unclear.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) has no formal position regarding rBGH. Together with its advocacy affiliate, the ACS Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), the Society supports open, fair and transparent regulatory oversight of products containing rBGH. The ACS also encourages continued and expanded scientific research and independent, credible assessment of potential relationships between the use of this substance in cows and human cancer risk. We support regulatory standards based on rigorous scientific evidence to minimize exposure to carcinogens, and we encourage the FDA to give the public information regarding known and suspected causes of cancer in the food system. The need for an effective FDA in ensuring the safety of our food supply, medicines, and consumer products has never been greater.

--http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/recombinant-bovine-growth-hormone

Car companies have capitalized on the individual's environmental guilt, selling us both the Prius and the Land Cruiser, when in effect, our impact on the environment would be minimized a great deal more by limiting meat in our diets.

Toyota Prius

Toyota Land Cruiser

2. Environmental impact of CAFOs

3. Health impact of CAFOs

Who is food insecure in the U.S.?

"HUNGER IN A LAND OF ABUNDANCE"

First, Wallach outlines criticisms of agibusiness practices, specifically CAFOs:

Some are making improvements to the way animals in CAFOs are treated, most significantly Temple Grandin:

1. Animal welfare:

  • "In the United States animals are given at least 17.8 million pound of antibiotics each year ... the overuse of antibiotics has led to the creation of pathogens that can resist these medications" (198).
  • Many animals are given "growth hormones, which are excreted with the animal's waste and find their way into the water supply ... Citing its concerns for its impact on human health, the European Union has outlawed the use of bovine somatogave (BST), a hormone still frequently given to cows in the United States to increase their milk production" (198).

  • "The USDA reports that in 2010 14.5 percent of households in the United States were food insecure, and 5.4 percent had very low food security" (201)
  • "Very low income Americans are eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)...averaging $133.85 per month" (201)
  • "11.5 million people, 4.1 percent of the total U.S. population, lived in food deserts" in 2009 (201).
  • "49 percent of SNAP recipients are white" (202).

Notes on "The Politics of Food" from Jennifer Jenson Wallach's HOW AMERICA EATS

  • "The world's livestock produces produces more greenhouse gasses than all combined forms of transportation" (197).
  • CAFOs produce millions of pounds of manure each year, 130 times the amount of waste produced by humans" (197).

But there is some hope...

Where does food insecurity begin?

"The federal government spends about five billion dollars a year on corn subsidies...Economic pressures have forced farmers to plant more and more corn and to stop growing a diverse assortment of crops on their lands" (200).

"Francis Moore Lappe has calculated that it takes twenty-one pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef, making meat production a staggeringly inefficient way to utilize food resources" (200)

  • "no federal laws regulate the welfare of farm animals" (197).
  • "'common farming practices' ... make any custom legal as long as it is performed widely" (197).

This includes:

Nevertheless, "Although the use of rBGH is still approved in the United States, demand for the product has decreased in recent years. Many large grocery store chains no longer carry milk from cows treated with rBGH. A United States Department of Agriculture survey conducted in 2007 found that less than 1 in 5 cows (17%) were being injected with rBGH."

--http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/recombinant-bovine-growth-hormone

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