FDA and Monsanto Milk the Public
By 1994, after a suitable amount of time had elapsed, the FDA
approved the sale of rBGH milk to the public. Under the FDA rules,
of course, it was unlabeled, so the consumer could avoid undue
anxiety about giving himself or his children exposure to cancerous
12 SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION
agents or other surprises. He would never know. When Monsanto's
Posilac caused leukemia and tumors in rats, the US Pure Food and
Drug Act was rewritten to allow a product that caused cancer in
laboratory animals to be marketed for human consumption with-out a warning label. It was as simple as that.
Though Monsanto claimed that its rBGH was one of the most
thoroughly examined drugs in US history, rBGH was never tested
in the long-term for (chronic) human health effects. A generally
accepted principle in science holds that two years of testing is the
minimal time for long-term health studies. rBGH was tested for
only 90 days on 30 rats. The short-term rat study was submitted by
Monanto to the FDA but was never published. The FDA refused to
allow anyone outside the administration to review the raw data
from this study, saying that publication would "irreparably harm"
Monsanto. Monsanto has continued to refuse to allow open sci-entific peer review of the 90 day study. This linchpin study of cancer
and BGH has never been subjected to scrutiny by the scientific
community. 14
Not content to feed GMO milk exclusively to its own unwary
population, the US Government exerted strong pressure on Mexico
and Canada also to approve rBGH, as part of an effort to expand
Monsanto's rBGH market globally.
However, the FDA-Monsanto campaign got a nasty setback in
January 1999, when the Canadian counterpart to the FDA, Health
Canada, broke ranks with the US and issued a formal "notice of
non-compliance" disapproving future Canadian sales of rBGH,
sometimes also called rBST or recombinant Bovine Somatotropin.
The action followed strong pressure from the Canadian
Veterinary Medical Association and the Royal College of Physicians,
which presented evidence of the adverse effects of rBGH milk,
including evidence of lameness and reproductive problems.
Monsanto had been very eager to break into the Canadian market
with its rBGH, even to the p'oint, according to a Canadian CBC
television report, that a Monsanto official tried to bribe a Canadian
health official sitting on the Government review committee with an
offer of$I-2 million, to secure rBGH approval in Canada without
WASHINGTON LAUNCHES THE GMO REVOLUTION 13
further studies. The insulted official reportedly asked, "Is that a
bribe?" and the meeting ended. IS
Moreover, a special European Commission independent com-mittee of recognized experts concluded that rBGH, as reported in
Canadian findings, not only posed the above-named dangers, but
also major risks especially of breast and prostate cancer in humans.
In August 1999, the United Nations Food Safety Agency, the
Codex Alimentarius Commissi<?n, ,ruled unanimously in favor of
a 1993 European Union moratorium on the introduction of
Monsanto's rBGH milk. Monsanto's rBGH was thus banned from
the EU.16
This setback was not to daunt the persistent bureaucrats at the
FDA, or their friends at Monsanto. Since GMO labeling had been
forbidden by the FDA, Americans were blissfully unaware of the
dangers of drinking the milk they were encouraged to consume
for better health. "Nature's most perfect food" was the dairy indus-try's slogan for milk. With regard to reporting the UN decision
and the negative Canadian conclusions, the US media were respect-fully quiet. Americans were simply told that the EU was trying to
hurt American cattle farmers by refusing imports of hormone-fed
US beef.
One concerned FDA scientist who refused to sit by idly was FDA
Veterinarian Dr. Richard Burroughs, who was responsible, from
1979 until 1989, for reviewing animal drugs such as rBGH. From
1985 until the year he was fired, Burroughs headed the FDA's review
of Monsanto's rBGH, thus being directly involved in the evaluation
process for almost five years. Burroughs wrote the original proto-cols for animal safety studies and reviewed the data submitted by
rBGH developers from their own safety studies.