The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

96 the world according to monsantopercent heavier in the group having received five times the dosethan in the control group.• The treated cows had significant reproductive problems: whereas 93percent of the control group were successfully inseminated duringthe period, only 52 percent of the injected groups were.• From one injected animal to another, the hormone level in the bloodvaried considerably, the highest being a thousand times higher thanthat recorded in the control group.Oddly, the Monsanto scientists provided no statistical data on mastitis.On the other hand, it emerged from the documents that the injected cowshad been treated with antibiotics much more often than those in the controlgroup; some of the antibiotics used were not authorized by the FDA for usein dairy herds.* One unfortunate animal (no. 85704) had received 120 differenttreatments. Finally, the milk produced in the experimental groups hadbeen sold to the St. Louis distribution network. No profits are too small.“Look,” said Hardin, taking a document from a thick file folder. “These arephotos of cow carcasses after they were skinned. You can see blackish areas:that’s dead tissue located at the injection sites. It’s a very potent product. Iremember reporting from a slaughterhouse where they were worried aboutmaking these unappetizing portions into hamburger meat.”A Manipulated Article in the Journal ScienceEpstein did not let go of the issue. He contacted John Conyers, chairman ofthe House Government Operations Committee, who in 1979 had asked himto testify in connection with a bill on white-collar crime. “I had mentionedthe case of Monsanto, which had hidden health data on nitrilotriacetic acid,which it was manufacturing as a replacement for phosphate-based detergents,”he recalled. “The committee had finally defined two categories ofcompany guilty of white-collar crime: those that deliberately concealed data,such as the carcinogenetic effects of a product, and continued to sell it asthough nothing was the matter, and those that hid or destroyed information*The following antibiotics were mentioned: Banamine, Ditrim, Gentamicin, Ivomec, Piperacillin,Rompun, and Vetislud.