Running from saliva dripping crazed farm dogs, repeat ably getting hung up onby the Food and Drug Administration, what is going on and what are theyhiding?

“Get out of here, you dumb reporter,” yells a neighbor of a dairy farm inElk Grove. Now, more interested that ever the research begun. What are thedairy farmers hiding and what is so scary about talking to a reporterregarding dairy practices? After all, dairy farms and cute black and whitecows are just as American as apple pie.

After researching the topic of dairy farming and being treated like acriminal, many things began to fall into place. The dairy industry is hidingsomething; they are hiding a hormone that is in just about everything we eat. They are scared, because if the public pushes hard enough then this hormonemay not be injected in cows anymore and the dairies will loose a manure loadof money.

Cows are currently being injected with Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), whichstimulates the production of another hormone, insulin-like growth factor(IGF-1). It is IGF-1 that stimulates milk production and according to TheAmerican Institute for Cancer Research, promotes cancer cell growth andraises the risk for prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women. IGF-1milk is in every dairy product that is not labeled hormone free.

“I an sort of scared to drink milk now,” said Sally Dudensing, a 62 year-oldstate worker and a former drinker of Crystal Milk. After Sally read a fewstudies done on IGF-1, she chose to switch to milk that is hormone free.

This all started in the early nineties in a lab called Monsanto, Monsantowanted to create, by the works of their own hands, a chemical that would makecows produce more milk, and they succeeded, with there star man-made hormone,rBGH. The biotechnology and pesticide company, developed the geneticallyengineered hormone, rBGH, and was approved by the Food and DrugAdministration (FDA) in 1993. Monsanto argues that milk can be produced moreefficiently with rBGH, up to $0 .70 per day, leading to six pounds of milkmore a day and poses no threat to hormone activity in humans.

A representative, for the Monsanto Headquarters in St. Louis Missouri, wouldnot give her name or any information regarding rBHG. She had been told tonot comment on this area. She simply said to go to the website of the FDA,and all the information would be listed regarding the safety of rBGH.

The website for the FDA regarding rBGH, says that 90% of the hormone iskilled through pasteurization and that when used in proper doses, poses nohealth hazards to humans.

“One hormone that is exactly the same in all in nature is IGF-1 in humans andin cows, and this is the most powerful growth hormone in both cows andhumans, and is the key factor in breast and prostate cancer,” said RobertCohen, Director of the Dairy Education Board.

Cohen, who worked with scientists on the Monsanto research project, thecompany that manufacturers rBGH, said the scientists he was working with,admitted the animals treated with the new hormone in our milk and cheese andbutter actually got cancer. Cohen also said that this information was leakedin the August 24, 1990 issue of Journal of Science.

Cohen met with FDA scientists on April 24, 1995, and said they admitted thatthe key bit of research revealing the problems with Monsanto’s bioengineererdfrankinfood was never rigorously reviewed. Cohen said that Monsanto wascleaver enough to have had their top dairy scientists, Margaret Miller andSuzanne Sechen, hired by the FDA to review their own research.

William Harris, M.D. did a study regarding breast cancer statistics andanimal foods. In his study, Harris looked for correlations between femalebreast cancer mortality rates in 30 countries, and found that there was asignificant correlation between breast cancer and milk production. Thissupported Harris’s hypothesis that estrogens and insulin-like growth factorIGF-1 in cow’s milk stimulate breast cancer.

A staff member of Crystal Dairy, in Sacramento CA, would not identifyherself, nor would she give any information regarding rBGH. The only thingshe said was that if she gave out any information regarding any of thedairies that uses rBGH, her company would suffer, due to the wholesalers notsupplying Crystal with milk.

A Dairy Farmer who supplies milk for Crystal Dairy would also not give hisname. He said that it was none of the consumers business about rBGH, andthat since FDA approved rBGH, then it is safe.

“The FDA has approved rBGH and that is all I will tell you,” said JennaMcDonald, Public Affairs Specialist, for the FDA. When McDonald was asked ifhigh levels of IGF-1 posed any dangers to the disruption of human hormones,she hung up the phone.

Jane Planet, a scientist and author of “Your Life in Your Hands,” wrote abook on her battle of breast cancer and her belief that a diary-free dietsaved her life. Planet, who had no family history of breast cancer, had fiverecurrences of the disease. On her fifth diagnosis, given three months tolive, she turned to her scientific back ground and took matters into her ownhands. She decided with all of her research that she would cut dairy out ofher diet. Seven years later, she is cancer free.

Planet discovered in her research that an atlas showed an incredibly low rateof breast cancer in China, she tried to think what was behind the differencebetween the cancer rate of China and the West.

She discovered that since Chinese people had not acquired the enzyme todigest dairy products, that they stayed away from them. Therefore, Planetgave a dairy free diet a try, and to her surprise she became cancer free.When Planet was asked where her calcium intake came from, she said that leafygreens and vegetables are rich in calcium, and that she has lived on a dairyfree diet for seven years and her bones density tests have never been better.

In her research she also concluded that high levels of IGF-1 in dairyproducts has been strongly implicated in both breast and prostate cancer. Shealso concluded that these artificial chemicals, which the body cannotdistinguish from hormones such as estrogen, are thought to disrupt the body’shormone system.

“Science has been tested and re-tested, and the FDA has taken their stand inapproving rBGH,” said Mike Marsh, CEO of Western United Dairymen. Marsh wouldnot answer any questions regarding the affects of rBGH in humans, he justsimply said that you take the best genetics and enhance your production.

A dairy hanging up during interviews as well as the FDA shows a strong linkto something. What is going on in those stables and how is it affecting ourpopulation regarding the food we eat and cancer related diseases? Peoplehave a right to know what is going on with our food, and since we arebecoming the a generation of splicing and re-splicing genes, a generation offrankinfood, then our population needs to know the dangers.