The tide is finally turning against chemical giant Monsanto and its right to use a growth hormone in every dairy herd in the USA.
The hormone – Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) – is designed to increase a cow’s milk output, but protestors are worried about the health effects it may have on humans.
The hormone has already been banned in Europe and Canada, and individual states are being pressured by worried consumers to do the same.
Some dairies are already stepping out of line, and are producing rBGH-free milk – even though it is illegal to market the fact. But some commentators reckon Monsanto will fight the campaigners to the bitter end as it’s investing its future in genetically-modified products, and rBGH was one of the first it launched.
(Source: Townsend Letter, 2007; 285: 60-2).