Nexus - 0504 - New Times Magazine-pages

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... GLOBAL NEWS ... NEWS THE CANCER RISKS FROM rBGH IN MILK wo veteran news reporters for Fox TV in Tampa, Florida, have been fired for refus- ing to water-down an investigative report on Monsanto's controversial milk hor- mone, rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone or bovine somatotropin, rBST). Monsanto sells the genetically engineered hormone rBGH to dairy farmers who inject it into their cows every two weeks to increase milk production. In recent years, evidence has accumulated indicating that rBGH may promote cancer in humans who drink milk from rBGH-treated cows. It is the link between rBGH and cancer that Fox TV tried hardest to remove from the story. In the fall of 1996, award-winning reporters Steve Wilson and Jane Akre were hired by WTVT in Tampa to produce a series on rBGH in Florida milk. After more than a year's work on the rBGH series, and three days before the first broadcast scheduled for 24 February 1997, Fox TV executives received the first of two letters from lawyers rep- resenting Monsanto, saying that Monsanto would suffer "enormous damage" if the series went to air. WTVT had been advertising the series aggressively, but cancelled it at the last moment. Monsanto's second letter warned of "dire consequences" for Fox if the series aired as it stood. (How Monsanto knew the series content remains a mystery.) According to documents filed in Florida's Circuit Court (13th Circuit), Fox lawyers then tried to water-down the series, offering to pay the two reporters if they would leave the station and 'keep mum' about what Fox had done to their work. The reporters refused Fox's offer, and on 2 April 1998 they filed their own lawsuit against WTVT. Steve Wilson has 26 years' experience as a journalist and has won four Emmy awards for his investigative reporting. His wife, Jane Akre, has been a reporter and news anchor for 20 years and has won a prestigious Associated Press award for her investigative reporting. The Wilson/Akre lawsuit charges that WTVT violated its licence from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by demanding that the reporters include known falsehoods in their rBGH series. The reporters also charge that WTVT violated Florida's ‘whistle-blower' law. Many of the legal documents in the lawsuit—including Monsanto's threatening letters—have been posted on the world wide web at www.foxbghsuit.com for all to see. No one will be surprised to learn that powerful corporations can intimidate TV sta- tions into rewriting the news, but this case offers an unusually detailed glimpse of specif- ic intimidation tactics and their effects inside a news organisation. It has been well documented by Monsanto and others that rBGH-treated cows undergo several changes: their lives are shortened, they are more likely to develop mastitis (an infection of the udder which then requires use of antibiotics which end up in the milk along with increased pus), and they produce milk containing elevated levels of another hormone, IGF-1. It is IGF-1 that is associated with increased likelihood of human cancers. IGF-1 is a naturally occurring hormone protein that is chemically identical in cows and humans. However, IGF-1 in milk is not destroyed by pasteurisation. Because it is active in humans and causes cells to divide, any increase in IGF-1 in milk raises obvious ques- tions: will it cause inappropriate cell division and growth leading to growth of tumours? The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved rBGH for use in cows in 1993, but the approval process was controversial because former Monsanto employees went to work for the FDA, oversaw the approval process, then went back to work for Monsanto. Milk containing rBGH was never properly tested on humans before the FDA allowed it onto the market. Monsanto is notorious for marketing dangerous products while falsely claiming safety. The entire planet is now contaminated with hormone-disrupting, cancer-causing PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), thanks to Monsanto's refusal to be guided by early scientific evidence indicating harm. Critics say rBGH is just one more example of Monsanto's monumentally poor judgement. When Wilson and Akre asked Monsanto officials to respond to these allegations of past poor judgement, Monsanto had no comment. (Source: Rachel's Environment & Health Weekly, no. 593, 9 April 1998; Environmental Research Foundation, PO Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403, USA. Full citations for this article can be found at Rachel's archive, www.monitor.net/rachel/) attacked houses thought to contain the leaders. The operation was not approved by UN commanders. The helicopter gunships began the raid by firing anti-tank missiles into houses in the immediate vicinity of the target. The US troops then stormed the houses, took 24 prisoners and attempted to return the five or so kilometres to base. The raid triggered a mass uprising in the area. At every turn the troops were met by hundreds of angry civilians and armed Somali fighters who shot down two Blackhawk gunships, killing the 18 US troops. In their attempts to escape the ever-growing crowds, the US forces pan- icked and shot anyone and anything. Eventually the trapped soldiers were res- cued by Malaysian and Pakistani troops. In one incident, US troops took a whole family hostage. When one of them began to scream, she was shot dead. In another incident, a Somali hostage was shot dead when he refused to stop praying. It was also widely reported that the US troops murdered the wounded Somalis and used their bodies as barri- cades. To this day, the US has never held any public investigation or reprimanded any of its commanders or troops. (Sources: Guardian Weekly, UK, 29 March 1998; Green Left Weekly, Aust, 8 April 1998) SEED GERMINATION OR TERMINATION? hey call it "terminator technology", a "breakthrough" in genetic engineering. It is the seed that doesn't germinate. If adopted, it means that the tradition of sav- ing seeds from one crop for the next sea- son's planting will disappear. In early March 1998, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and a Mississippi seed company, the Delta and Pine Land Company, were granted a patent for a tech- nique that can sterilise the seeds produced by most agricultural crops. They expect the technology to be adopt- ed by all the major seed companies which for many years have been looking for ways to prevent farmers from recycling seeds from their crops. Willard Phelps, a spokesman for the USDA, predicts the new technique will soon be so widely adopted that farmers will only be able to buy seeds that cannot be re- germinated. (Source: New Scientist, 28 March 1998) JUNE - JULY 1998 NEXUS <9