The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

6The Bovine Growth Hormone Affair,Part Two: The Art ofSilencing Dissenting VoicesPosilac is the single most tested new product in history.—Monsanto promotional filmSamuel Epstein was right: the further you go in this unbelievable story, themore you have to pinch yourself to make sure you’re not dreaming. It feelsas though it’s straight out of a science fiction novel. On November 5, 1993,the FDA granted authorization to put Posilac on the market. Ninety dayslater, at the expiration of the legal waiting period, precisely on February 4,1994, Federal Express trucks traveled to every corner of the American countrysidedelivering the first doses of the transgenic hormone. In fact—andthis is another peculiarity—rBGH is not purchased in veterinary pharmaciesbut is ordered directly from Monsanto on a toll-free number.Labeling Prohibited under Threat of Legal ActionSix days later, the Federal Register published a document entitled “InterimGuidance on the Voluntary Labeling of Milk and Milk Products from CowsThat Have Not Been Treated with Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin,” thepurpose of which was to “prevent false or misleading claims regardingrBST.” 1 It is one thing to state, as the document does in the first part, that“the agency found that there was no significant difference between milkfrom treated and untreated cows, and therefore, concluded that . . . [it] did