A growing issue in the world today is the use of antibiotics and growth hormones in animal production industry. However, for over sixty years Americans have been exposed to hormones on a regular basic when they consume beef. (Organic Consumer Association) On average eighty percent of all feedlot cattle are given hormones to help them grow at an increased rate. (Communication Foundation) “In 1988 the European Union banned the use of all hormone growth promoters.” (Organic Consumer Association)
Today farmers use six anabolic steroids in various combinations. “Those anabolic steroids are osetradiol, progesterone, testosterone, zeranol, trenbolone, and melengestrol.” (Communication Foundation) There are three natural steroids that are used as well. The natural steroids are estradiol, testosterone, and progesterone. Also used are three synthetic hormones which include estrogen compound zeranol, andgrogen trenbolone acetate, and progestin melengestrol acetate. (Organic Consumer Association) However, when hormones are given to cattle some of the naturally occurring hormone levels could go up seven to twenty times the normal level. Scientists have growing concerns about the use of the hormones.
The scientists are concerned with the hormones use and their impact of the environment. The scientists are also concerned with the hormones being excreted in the manure. The scientists say, that the hormones that are going into the can be found in the soil and the water supply.(Communication Foundation) The scientists also say that the hormones being used are affecting human development through the human reproductive system.
“High levels of hormones can cause problems in the human body, but can hormones we ingest really alter our hormone level...
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Kellems, Richard O., and D. C. Church. Livestock Feeds and Feeding. 6th ed. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.
Laliberte, Richard. "Growth Hormones in Beef and Milk." WeightWatchers.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. .
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Taylor, Robert E., and Thomas G. Fields. Scientific Farm Animal Production in Introduction to Animal Science. 8th Ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 200
Although using synthetic steroids is not a new concept, finding whether the drugs negatively affect humans is still being decided upon by scientists. According to Cornell University, diethylstilbestrol, or DES for short, was one of the first synthetic estrogens to be injected into the cattle and was introduced in the 1930s. Cornell University reveals, “In the year 1956, about two-thirds of the nation’s beef cattle had the DES injection prior to ent...
Steroids are used daily in America in body building, medicine, and food production. There are three main types of steroids, Corticosteroids, Anabolic steroids, and hormone steroids. Corticosteroids are the kind of steroids doctors prescribe to patients when they are sick or have some kind of medical issue. These steroids reduce overactive immune responses and reduce swelling. Anabolic steroids are used for building muscle. They also contain a lot of testosterone. Testosterone is naturally produced by one's body but too much can cause a vast variety of problems. Hormone steroids are the steroids people put in animals (DeNoon).
Speed, in a word, or, in the industry’s preferred term, “efficiency.” Cows raised on grass simply take longer to reach slaughter weight than cows raised on a richer diet, and for a half a century now the industry has devoted itself to shortening a beef animal’s allotted span on earth… what gets a steer from 80 to 1,100 pounds in fourteen months is tremendous quantities of corn, protein and fat supplements, and an arsenal of new drugs. (71)
Chemical pollution into the environment can cause both genotypic and phenotypic changes in many organisms, including humans. More specifically, environmental pollutants like BPA can act as xenoestrogens (estrogen imitators), ultimately affecting hormonal activity and production in an organism. This alteration in activity and production can be termed as endocrine disruption. The endocrine system regulates a variety of processes responsible for growth and development, including gonadal formation and function, digestion, metabolism, sex differentiation, and embryonic development (reviewed by Flint et al., 2012). Chemicals that interfere with the function or structure of the endocrine system can be defined as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2007).
Notaro, Kris. "The Crusade for a Cultured Alternative to Animal Meat: An Interview with Nicholas Genovese, PhD PETA." IEET. PETA, n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. .
What is in milk? Have you ever stopped to think? Growth hormones and pasteurization dramatically change milk for the worse. In milk there are natural components, and some elements in milk that are added in, some of which that can be hazardous to a person's health. Growth hormones called rBGH, recombinant growth hormone, are chemicals manufactured by companies such as Monsanto and American Cyanamid, which are put into the cows, along with insulin growth factor-1 (IGF-1), to stimulate the production of milk (Cancer Prevention Coalition).
"The Importance of Livestock." CGIAR News. Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, 1997. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
The endocrine system of animals is a main source of bioregulatory compounds. Hormonal actions regulate all aspects of animal life: reproduction and development, digestion, metabolism, behavioural responses etc. (Hertenstein 2006, Norris 2007). Hormones and glands of vertebrate and invertebrate endocrine system differ in structure and function, but their main regulatory role remains conserved. However, the balance among the environmental clues, hormonal signals and organisms’ responses can be easily disturbed. One of the causes of this disturbance is the presence of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDC’s) in the environment.
Cows are not worth raising because of the several problems revolving around them, along with the minimal health benefits they have. Arthur Knopf’s essay points out the health problems with dairy, but there is even more evidence to show alternatives to dairy can be increasingly beneficial. According to LiveScience contributor, Jessie Szalay, “if you buy calcium-fortified almond milk, the calcium levels will likely match or surpass cow’s milk.” Options that are more beneficial than cow’s milk should be explore instead of continuing to raise cattle. Knopf’s essay also mentions that cattle negatively effect the environment through methane and crop consumption, but there are several other ways that they are detrimental on the environment. One way
Wasserman, S. A. 2008. Animal nutrition. In Campbell, N. A., Reece, J. B., Urry, L. A., Cain, M. L., Wasserman, S. A., Minorsky, P. V. and Jackson, R. B. (ed.), Biology, Rearson Benjamin Cummings. 1267pp. (ISBN: 9780321536167).
Diskin, M. G. (201). Fertility in the High Producing Dairy Cow (Vol. Volume 2). BSAS.
The drugs given to the cattle or poultry do not fully break down in the digestive system in the livestock and the excrement has these remains in it afterwards. The effects are worse within the systems of the animals; deformities can occur with aviary livestock, such as crippling from leg and joint disfigurements. Rapid growth in chickens now cause the respiratory system, heart and lungs, to fail because both are not developed well enough to support the body it is attached to; which ends in expiry.* Diseases are produced by organisms that learn and build up immunities to affect other organisms and cause the victim to become in poor health; antibiotics used to in mass are a way that pathogens learn to build immunities just as humans use them to fight off disease. Subjecting our livestock to copious amounts of these drugs may make pathogens resistant to medicine used for ill humans. “Medical ... authorities have reached consensus that antibiotic overuse in animal agriculture is contributing to human public health problems.” * Human medical providers of all over the world agree that injecting livestock with antibiotics for the weight gain is instigating more hazardous diseases. The decision was made after studies made connections to human infections to drug-resistant pathogens from farm production
In defense of Animals, “The Animal Reasurch Industry Needs More Oversite.” Animal Experimentation San Diego, California. 2002.99-105. Print.
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