Dairy industry leaders say they are bracing for a crisis this autumn when they expect Health Canada to announce it has approved sale of a dairy growth hormone.
“It’s our assumption rBST (recombinant bovine somatotropin or BST) will be approved,” said Kempton Matte, president of the dairy processor lobby National Dairy Council of Canada.
“We have polling evidence that consumers are very wary about this. The market will see some tremendous upheavals.”
The dairy council has opposed sale of BST in Canada because of feared consumer panic.
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The farmer interest group Dairy Farmers of Canada has had an ambivalent position on the drug, not wishing to see the registration process politicized and yet fearful of the market reaction.
DFC executive secretary Richard Doyle said farmers are particularly uneasy that some processors will try to cash in on consumer fears by advertising BST-free products, even though there is no way to test.
“That would imply that BST milk is not as safe, which would not be true,” he said. “We will debate it again in July but our major concern now is labeling. Our assumption, based on what we have been told, is that it will be approved this fall.”
Health Canada has refused public comment on when a decision will be announced.
The dairy farmer has some experience with public reaction to drug use in production of milk, long advertised as “nature’s perfect food.” It was not a happy experience.
Last year, the dairy farmer lobby office received 22,000 anti-BST postcards. Several years ago after stories that milk from a BST-treated research herd in British Columbia was getting into the provincial dairy pool, there was consumer panic and what the industry considered to be media hysteria.
Consumer fears
“I had a call from a pregnant woman worrying that her baby would have two heads,” said Doyle. “If the opponents and the media play on fears and blow it up, then it will be a crisis for our industry, guaranteed.”
BST is a manufactured version of the naturally occurring chemical which induces lactation in dairy cattle.
It has been used in the United States for several years, to increase production from average cows.
For several years, Health Canada officials have been studying an application from the drug company Monsanto to market a BST product. The department says its criteria are effectiveness and safety, rather than political or consumer reaction.
But surveys consistently have shown consumers are fearful of drug use to increase dairy production.
And approval of the drug almost certainly would unleash a political uproar in the new Parliament.
The NDP, the Bloc QuŽbecois and parts of the Liberal caucus are harsh critics of the idea.
The Reform opposition has said it supports a science-based drug approval system which is not driven by politics. If BST is found safe, then it should be approved and the market will decide its fate.
Campaign against
In the farm sector, the National Farmers Union has been campaigning against approval of the drug, arguing it is not wanted by consumers or processors and could further undermine production controls within the dairy supply management system, leading to greater concentration.
The Council of Canadians, a public policy lobby group opposed to free trade and corporate power, also has lobbied against BST.
Support has come from industry and scientific groups which promote biotechnology.
Researchers at the University of Guelph in Ontario, several of whom have accepted corporate grants to research the issue, have been adamant that BST is safe for animals and humans and should be approved as another farm management tool.
