Fun and Games
 

The Ministry of Health in Canada holds a report which details the changes in organ growth rates of lab animals treated with rBST/rBGH milk. The report known as the Richard, Odaglia, Deslex Report was submitted as part of Monsanto's 53,000 page application to seek approval for rBST/rBGH use in the United States of America. No one has been able to get a copy of the data on the observations and measurements of the lab animal organs which include gross lesions (cancer growths). This may be due to the insistance of the Canadian Government that info on dead rat parts is integral to trade protection for Monsanto. Go figure.

Research(?) at Guelph University in Canada was done to determine if pasteurization had any effect on rBST/rBGH residues in milk. 18% of naturally occuring bovine growth hormone was destroyed using normal pasteurization protocols. 19% of rBST/rBGH residues in milk derived from rBST/rBGH injected cows was destroyed using normal pasteurization protocols. Now for the ground breaking research! Powdered rBST/rBGH was sprinkled into ordinary milk. The milk was heated at 69 - 71 C for 25 - 30 minutes!! Bibbity-boppety-boo! A full 90% of the powdered rBST/rBGH is destroyed. Write it up in Journal of Nutrition (Nov 1990) under the title "Bioactivity of Milk from bST - Treated Cows"  and pray no one notices. It's on page 515 if you're curious.

Enter stage left.. Juskevich and Guyer. Their job is to write up something that FDA can hand to Congress to prove rBST/rBGH can be put on the market. They do just that. Citing the Guelph University comedy as legitimate research they curiously reference J.A. Moore who knew nothing about it. (Hey! It's only science and our health.) They call their little document "Bovine Growth Hormone: Human Food Safety Evaluation." It gets published in the peer reviewed SCIENCE Aug 24 1990, p. 875 - 884.  On page 878 this is what they had to say about the magic show at Guelph. "Additionally it has also been shown that 90% of bGH activity is destroyed upon pasteurization of milk(47). Therefore rGH residues do not present a human health problem." What about the increased IGF-1?

The increased WHAT?? (I knew you'd ask.)

RBST/rBGH treatment of cattle increases levels of IGF-1, a naturally occuring hormone identical in cattle and humans. IGF-1 is the most powerful hormone yet discovered. IGF-1 has been found at every cancer site investigated. IGF-1 levels of 4,000 nanograms per litre in ordinary milk can explode to 50,000 nanograms per litre in rBST/rBGH milk. The human body has only approximately 2,000 nanograms of free IGF-1 in circulation at any given time... UNTIL you consume dairy. Remember the rats and their 'gross lesions?'

I took all this information to the MP for the riding in which I resided, Mr. Dick Harris MP. (Prince George - Bulkley Valley)  Harris's initial response was "That means we should ban milk." I was not ready to go that far at that time. I am now. I also showed the good MP the Report of the rBST Task Force  prepared under the order of then Minister of Agriculture Ralph Goodale. It is significant that while the Minister of Agriculture had an Assistant Deputy Minister chair the committee, there was ample representation from the industries most likely to gain from rBST/rBGH being used in Canada. Monsanto Canada, Provel, Dairy Farmers of Canada, National Dairy Council of Canada were represented. Industry Canada which is pushing bio-genetic engineering without any in vivo testing and Consumers Assoc. of Canada were also represented. The rBST Task Force Report quotes Juskevich and Guyer repeatedly, including  the ' Guelph Lie', without even blushing.

Dick Harris MP informed me at my last meeting with him that he had turned all the documents over to Daphne Jennings MP for Mission Coquitlam. Daphne Jennings MP was in the process of preparing a bill to ensure labeling of rBST/rBGH milk products. No fight to investigate what happened at Guelph. No questions in the House as to why data on rats has to be hidden. No questions as to why Monsanto couldn't do pasteurization research at home. No questions other than to ask of unknown parties (to me) in Ottawa whether or not there was any chance of the Richard, Odaglia,Deslex report ever being released. Once assured that the report was in safe hands they could ignore me. From "That means we should ban milk" to total disinterest is quite a turnaround. Could it have something to do with Reform's plans to go beyond NAFTA to the next stage of turning Canadian resources and Sovereignty over to transnationals?

Daphne Jennings is not an MP in the 36th Parliament of Canada, so who took the job of introducing the rBST/rBGH labeling Bill? Which Member? Which Party?

Canadians will have a choice due to labeling but we will never be told the truth about rBST/rBGH. To the average Canadian the two types of milk will be 'virtually indistinquishable.' The average uninformed Canadian will end up using rBST/rBGH milk eventually.If there is nothing but rBST/rBGH milk in the store, will a label matter? We will never be given the data on the rats. We will never see an investigation into the fraudulent research at Guelph University. When the Reform Party forms the Government in Canada we will see rBST/rBGH on the open market. After all, isn't everyone saying "it's Reform's turn"?

In my own situation, after 40 years of dairy use, I now avoid it as much as possible. Not easy when every conceivable processed food product that could has had dairy components added to it.

If you want to make a difference, contact your MP regardless of your political affiliation and demand that the data on the lab animals in the 180 day study of rBST/rBGH written up by Richard, Odaglia, and Deslex be released to the public. Little dead rats are anxious to speak to us from the beyond the grave.


 
Copyright R. Hamilton 1997

Politics is the conduct of public affairs for private advantage. -- Ambrose Bierce