Growth Hormones in Beef
Besides pesticides, there are many drugs used in agriculture that are controversial. These drugs, like pesticides, help increase yields.
Since the 1950s, growth hormones have been used to increase meat production. Three naturally occurring hormones – estridiol, progesterone and testosterone p and their synthetic equivalents - zeranol, melengestrol acetate and trenbolone – are injected into calves’ ears as time-release pellets.
This implant under the skin causes the steers to gain an extra two to three pounds per week and saves up to $40 per steer in production cost because the steers gain more weight with same amount of feed.
The practice of using hormones in beef production is recognized as one of the most effective management tools available to increase feed efficiency and improve the rate of gain of cattle. Feed efficiency is improved from 6 to 8 percent through the use of hormones with feedlot cattle.
Two thirds of US cattle are treated with hormones, but the European Union banned the practice in 1988 and bans imported beef unless it is certified hormone free.
Is it safe for human to eat meat from cattle using growth hormones? The Codex standards on growth hormones in beef state that this is safe and allow their use as do the US and Canada.
Hormone like commercials (DDT, PCB, dioxin, etc) in large enough concentrations or at critical points in fetal development distrupt functioning of the natural hormones in both animal and human bodies.
The US government has been studying the endocrine disruptive effects of certain estrogenic pesticides and food contaminants known as xenoestrogens, but has only begun study the effects of hormones in meat and its impact for food safety and the environment. There has been escalating incidence of reproductive cancers in the United States since 1950s.
Growth Hormones in Beef
