A controversial dairy growth hormone not yet approved for use in Canada is widely available and in use on dairy farms, an MP claimed last week.
New Democratic Party agriculture critic Dick Proctor told the House of Commons agriculture committee May 7 that bovine somatotropin is readily available to dairy farmers.
“I know from someone involved in the industry that it is widely available and in use,” he said.
Although such claims have been made in the past, dairy industry officials deny direct knowledge.
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According to the MP, an acquaintance who works for one of the companies promoting the growth hormone said they wanted to conduct field tests in the Guelph, Ont., area, assessing milk production from dairy herds injected with BST against herds that had no experience with the drug.
“In the Guelph area, they could not find a herd that had not experimented with it,” said Proctor.
Sales of BST in Canada are illegal because it has not been approved by federal regulators. It is legal in the United States and there are persistent allegations the drug illegally flows across the border as dairy farmers try to get a competitive advantage.
BST has been under review by Health Canada scientists for years.
Meanwhile, the political debate over whether it should be approved swirls and deepens.
Several years ago, a Commons committee recommended the product be kept from the Canadian market until more testing was done and it is proven safe.
Last week, the Senate voted for a further one-year moratorium on approval of the drug.
While dairy farmers remain divided on whether BST would be good or bad, dairy processors oppose its approval in fear it would spook customers.
Wary of the unknown
Surveys have shown that many consumers are wary of milk produced through use of drugs.
At the Commons agriculture committee last week, a representative of the grocery industry conceded use of BST in the dairy herd will be a headache.
Jeanne Cruikshank, vice-president of the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors, told MPs that consumers are wary of the product.
“At retail, as it is now, we would have a problem,” she said.
Laurie Curry, vice-president of the Food and Consumer Manufacturers of Canada, said the controversy over whether to approve the growth hormone has been a public relations disaster for the food
industry.
“This is a lesson, a tough lesson,” she told MPs. Consumers have not been educated to accept milk produced from cows injected with the production-enhancing drug.
Yet Proctor said the political debate is irrelevant since the product is already in wide use.
“Absolutely,” he said. “It is already here. Consumers already have BST products whether they want them or not.”
