Human endeavor through out history has been to achieve increasing productivity in what ever man does and the area of milk production is no exception. Hybrid cows were once the most acceptable source of milk with their high capacity to yield milk and more favorable feed to milk ratio. Not satisfied with these achievements dairy industry in some countries like the US started tampering with the natural production of milk by beef cattle and there are six steroid hormones already in use in that country for increased milk production. Advent of recombinant DNA technology gave rise to the development of synthetic hormones like rBovine Growth Hormone (r-BGH) which is used in the US accounting for 42% of country's milk out put, though there are concerns about the safety of this practice world over.
"The use of rBGH has well-known negative impacts on the health of dairy cows. Human consumption of dairy products produced using the hormone also may increase the risk of certain types of cancer. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and all 27 members of the European Union have disallowed the use of rBGH. Codex Alimentarius, the United Nations' main food safety body, twice determined that there was no consensus on the safety of rBGH for human health. It is widely acknowledged that the use of hormones in beef production leaves hormone residues in meat, putting consumers at risk for prolonged exposure. While European Union authorities have never approved the use of hormones in beef production, the U.S. government has relied on very limited and now out-of-date research to back its claim that it is safe for producers to use growth hormones on their animals"
People in rest of the world are always puzzled by the obsession the US has towards genetically engineered foods and with half hearted attempts to carry out necessary safety studies on GM foods. The consumers seem to be at the mercy of those giant private companies working under benign policies of the government there which are in the fore front in pushing GM technologies with scant regard to the long term consequences of consuming GM foods to the helpless citizens of that country.
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