The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

the bovine growth hormone affair, part one 95the FDA are among the most knowledgeable and capable in the world todayregarding the evaluation of animal drugs. We are dedicated to the people weserve—consumers of meat, milk, and eggs, and farmers who may use thenew animal drug—as well as the animals which may be treated.”Some weeks later, “toward the end of October,” Epstein received a “giftfrom heaven”: an unidentified person working at the FDA sent him a boxcontaining all the veterinary data recorded on a Monsanto experimentalfarm near company headquarters in St. Louis. “It wasn’t the first time thathad happened to me,” he said, smiling broadly. “Over the last thirty years,I’ve frequently received internal records from regulatory agencies or privatecompanies sent by employees who preferred to remain anonymous for fearof reprisals. But this was really a godsend.”The cancer specialist immediately contacted Pete Hardin, editor of TheMilkweed, a monthly devoted to milk production that was highly respectedfor its rigor and editorial independence. Together, they spent hours studying,comparing, and interpreting hundreds of pages filled with figures andraw data. “It was breathtaking to be able to work with original Monsantodocuments,” Hardin said, still enthusiastic when I met him at his homein Brooklyn, Wisconsin, on October 6, 2006. “Look, most of them aremarked ‘Company Confidential: this document belongs to the MonsantoCompany.... It contains confidential information which may not be reproduced,revealed to unauthorized persons or sent outside the company withoutproper authorization.’ This is exactly what an investigative journalistloves to publish!”The two men together produced an article, published in The Milkweed inJanuary 1990, that caused quite a stir. 2 It noted that the Monsanto study involvedeighty-two cows followed through one lactation period, that is, fortyweeks. The herd was divided into four groups: an untreated control group, asecond injected every two weeks with a normal dose of the hormone, a thirdwith three times the normal dose, and the fourth with five times the normaldose. At the end of the experiment, half the cows were slaughtered and theirorgans and tissue analyzed. The results were edifying:• The organs and glands of the injected animals (thyroid, liver, heart,kidneys, ovaries, and so on) were much larger than in the controlgroup, whereas the total weight of these cows when slaughtered wassignificantly lower. For example, the right ovary was on average 44