Legal Research Assignment
Environmental Law: Hungry for Change
This paper seeks to research and investigate consumer and environmental protection issues. Laws and scientific evidence exists, but the federal government continues to put its citizens in harm’s way. In the following paragraphs, recombinant bovine growth hormone, Atrazine, and the Food Safety Modernization Act will be discussed in further detail.
Bovine growth hormone (BGH) is hormone which is naturally produced in the pituitary gland of cows. In the early 1980s, research lead to the development and paten of artificially synthesized BGH called recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). As a result, dairy producing cows that are injected with rBGH can yield more milk than non-injected cows. In 1993, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quickly approved the public sale of milk produced by rBGH injected cows. However, little research was actually known about adverse and side effects caused by consuming milk produced by rBGH injected cows. Evidence now supports that cows injected with rBGH produce milk with increased levels of the hormone insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1). IGF-1 is naturally produced hormone in mammals and is responsible for normal and cancerous cell production in the prostate and breasts of humans. Therefore, researchers have determined that consuming milk and meat produced by rBGH injected cows is a risk factor for the development of prostate and breast cancer (Larsen, 1998). With evidence supporting negative side effects from the consumption of rBGH products, one must ask why the federal government, and specifically the FDA, has not created laws regulating the use of hormones in food. The reason why no such laws exist is because of lobbying. Lobbying is the effort of individuals and interest groups to persuade government to create legislature and policy in favor of their specific interest (Gabel and Scott, 2011). Monsanto, the maker of rBGH, spends millions of dollars every year to
This paper seeks to research and investigate consumer and environmental protection issues. Laws and scientific evidence exists, but the federal government continues to put its citizens in harm’s way. In the following paragraphs, recombinant bovine growth hormone, Atrazine, and the Food Safety Modernization Act will be discussed in further detail.
Bovine growth hormone (BGH) is hormone which is naturally produced in the pituitary gland of cows. In the early 1980s, research lead to the development and paten of artificially synthesized BGH called recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). As a result, dairy producing cows that are injected with rBGH can yield more milk than non-injected cows. In 1993, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quickly approved the public sale of milk produced by rBGH injected cows. However, little research was actually known about adverse and side effects caused by consuming milk produced by rBGH injected cows. Evidence now supports that cows injected with rBGH produce milk with increased levels of the hormone insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1). IGF-1 is naturally produced hormone in mammals and is responsible for normal and cancerous cell production in the prostate and breasts of humans. Therefore, researchers have determined that consuming milk and meat produced by rBGH injected cows is a risk factor for the development of prostate and breast cancer (Larsen, 1998). With evidence supporting negative side effects from the consumption of rBGH products, one must ask why the federal government, and specifically the FDA, has not created laws regulating the use of hormones in food. The reason why no such laws exist is because of lobbying. Lobbying is the effort of individuals and interest groups to persuade government to create legislature and policy in favor of their specific interest (Gabel and Scott, 2011). Monsanto, the maker of rBGH, spends millions of dollars every year to
References: Bottomiller, H. (2012, Aug 7). Pelosi slams gop on food safety: ‘This is the e. coli club.’ Food Safety News. Retrieved from http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/08/pelosi-slams-gop-on-food-safety-this-is-the-e-coli-club/ Bottomiller, H Gable, T. G. & Scott, C. D. (2011). Toward a public policy and marketing understanding of lobbying and its role in the development of public policy in the united states. Journal of Public Policy. 30 (1), 89-95. Retrieved from Galileo. Kennedy Jr., R. F., (2004). The junk science of george w. bush. Nation. 278 (9), 11-18. Retrieved from Galileo. Larsen, H. (1998). Milk and cancer connection. International Health News. 76. Retrieved from http://www.notmilk.com/drlarsen.html Trexler, N Williams, R. M. (2007). Bovine growth hormone: Consumers fight back. Townsend Letter. (285), 60-62. Retrieved from Galileo. Winchester, P. D., Huskins, J., & Ying, J. (2009). Agrichemicals in surface water and birth defects in the united states. Acta Paediatrica. 98 (4), 664-669. Retrieved from Galileo.