Growth hormones boost milk production and significantly reduce impact on the environment, US researchers said on Monday.
They said supplementing 1 million cows with the growth hormone recombinant bovine somatotropin or rbST would have the same effect as removing about 400,000 cars from the road or planting 300 million trees.
"That's a pretty substantial impact," said Dale Bauman of Cornell University, whose research appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Michael Hansen, a senior scientist with Consumers Union, said the study is based on a "false notion" that you can produce the same quantity of milk with less feed.
While it has been approved for sale by the US Food and Drug Administration since 1993, the hormone has been banned in Japan, Australia, Canada and parts of Europe. Opponents say it can have harmful effects on both the cows and humans who drink their milk.
Many US grocery chains in the United States have switched to milk suppliers that do not use the synthetic hormone, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc said in March its private label brand of milk would be sourced from suppliers that do not use growth hormones.
Cornell University paid for the study, done with the help of Roger Cady of Monsanto Co, maker of the bovine growth hormone Posilac.
The study focused on environmental, not safety, issues.
Haase Comment: Knowing this, I would require the dairy industry to "offset environmental impact" of the industry by planting the 300 million tree and still be hormone free. These paid studies are all a "numbers" game skewed for the benefit of the hormone investors... if the results were "negative", we would not see the report.
Research on NON FLATULENT producing animal feed would reduce "emissions" from 30-60%, or a "ten fold" benefit over this study... maybe they should invest in that.