A: Here's the scoop: we hear about mad cow disease and British beef on the news, right? And that in the US, according to the news, we have nothing to worry about. See, the US knew about mad cow disease several years back, and, along with Canada, quietly banned import of British beef back in 1989. The American press has reported that all's well with US beef. Case closed?
Not hardly. What the press hasn't bothered to tell you is that Monsanto's vigorously promoted, barely tested Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) is one of the links in the chain that produces mad cow disease!
Monsanto used the services of powerful PR firms including:
"Monsanto's own tests showed increased levels of mastitis, a painful udder infection, in cows injected with rBGH. According to food safety experts, increased mastitis would force farmers to use more antibiotics, which would then be more likely to contaminate the cows' milk. Milk from treated cows would also spoil faster because it contains more bacteria and has a higher 'somatic cell count.' (translated from scientific jargon...this means that rBGH-induced milk contains 'more pus.')28
"Dr. Richard Burroughs worked for the FDA from 1985 to 1988, analyzing test data supplied by Monsanto and other companies engaged in developing rBGH. His analysis convinced him that the companies were manipulating data. In 1989, Burroughs was fired after he went to Congress accusing his superiors of covering up this information.29
"Cows treated with rBGH need to consume more protein, often in the form of 'rendered animal protein' derived from the carcasses of cows and other dead animals. Cows consuming animal byproducts are susceptible to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as 'mad cow disease.' This disease has plagued England for a decade, and some doctors worry that it could migrate from cows to humans as a fatal dementia known as CJD.30" [emphasis added]
Of course, NOW we know that the disease DOES pass from cow to man, which makes Monsanto's activities all the more criminal.
Monsanto has successfully sued to keep labels off of milk bottles saying "BGH-free" in an effort to keep people in the dark as to the content of the milk. Given that rBGH has been foisted on the American public, and it has been shown to be linked to CJD, it is only a matter of time before we have an outbreak here!
But don't expect to see this MISSING LINK on the nightly news anytime soon! Monsanto is one of the world's largest transnational corporations; the "free" press won't touch them. Why is Monsanto pushing rBGH? It boosts their profit and gives them a lead on the emerging disaster of corporate biotechnology.
In other words, they are simply being capitalists! And where there's money to be made, capitalists proudly ape William Vanderbilt's comment, "The public be damned!"