The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

the bovine growth hormone affair, part one 99The IGF-1 produced by human growth hormone is identical to that producedby bovine growth hormone, whereas the two hormones are noticeablydifferent. Therein lies the problem and also the origin of the scientificsleight of hand used by the promoters of rBGH to substantiate its harmlessness.Said another way, the pituitary of the cow and of the human eachproduce a specific growth hormone, both of which, however, induce theproduction of the same substance, IGF-1, the function of which is to stimulatethe proliferation of cells, thereby causing organisms to grow. When,for example, Jean-Yves Nau writes in Le Monde, “This hormone is specificto the animal species from which it comes and thus can have no effecton human metabolism, whether it is in milk or meat that is consumed,” heis mistaken. 7The “detail” is all the more important because there is one fact aboutwhich everyone is in agreement: the level of IGF-1 is distinctly higher in themilk of cows treated with transgenic growth hormone than in natural milk.According to the Science article, the increase can be as high as 75 percent! 8But the FDA added that “rBGH is biologically and orally inactive in humans”because it “cannot be absorbed in the blood” and when ingested“would be expected to be degraded in the human gastrointestinal tract in thesame manner as other proteins.” “This is completely false,” according to Epsteinand Hansen. “Several studies have confirmed that IGF-1 is not destroyedin digestion, because it is protected by casein, the principal proteinin milk.” 9Clearly fully aware of the stakes, the FDA scientists hazarded a final argument:“Furthermore, 90% of rBGH is destroyed upon pasteurization. . . .The use of rBGH in dairy cattle presents no increased health risk to consumers.”“This is the height of bad faith,” according to Hardin, who showedme the study on which this assertion is supposedly based. It was conductedby Paul Groenewegen, a Canadian doctoral student, on an assignment fromMonsanto. He heated milk of transgenic origin to 162º Fahrenheit (approximately90º Celsius) for thirty minutes. “The normal time for pasteurizationis fifteen seconds,” Hardin pointed out. “Milk pasteurized in these conditionsno longer has any nutritional value, and yet 10 percent of the IGF-1was not destroyed.”