OTTAWA (Staff) — The political debate over whether to approve use of the dairy cow growth hormone BST in Canada is irrelevant because it already is being used here, said two MPs who support approval.
Liberal John O’Reilly (Victoria-Haliburton) told the Commons agriculture committee last week that some dairy farmers are already importing BST from the United States and using it to increase milk production.
Therefore, any government decision to impose a moratorium on approval would not stop its use.
“All a moratorium would do is help the black market,” he said. “It is here. I would rather see it regulated than left to the black market.”
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Alberta Reform MP Leon Benoit shared the view.
“There is a very high probability it already is here,” he said in an interview. “I have no personal knowledge but I have been told that.”
Lose faith in industry
The MPs were commenting after opponents of BST, a milk-inducing hormone already approved in the U.S. and banging on the door to get into Canada, argued that consumers would lose faith in the purity of the milk supply if BST is allowed into the country.
The two were arguing that it already is here.
“It’s like any other management tool,” O’Reilly said in an interview. “Farmers are smart. They are looking for any advantage. If it is available, they will be trying it.”
And with no affordable test on the market to confirm use of BST, consumers have to assume some milk in the system is produced with the aid of BST.
“Stopping its use is not an issue,” said O’Reilly. “What is at issue is whether we recognize it and try to set some rules.”
