People are afraid of the unknown. If customers come up to us at the farmers markets and makes a big deal about us not being "certified" organic or our husbandry practices we like to ask them why they feel this way. Most chances then not they can not give us a straight answer. They have no idea why they think hormones are bad, or feeding corn is bad, they just know.
Our job is to educate the general consumer. We need to take away the fears of the unknown that the media and certain groups have put into peoples minds.
I will try my best to post more information on this blog and facebook page. As hard as it it sometimes for me to talk to people I don't know while at the farmers markets I am making an extra point to keep telling the "correct" story on modern production agriculture.
Everything that lives has hormones!
Our job is to educate the general consumer. We need to take away the fears of the unknown that the media and certain groups have put into peoples minds.
I will try my best to post more information on this blog and facebook page. As hard as it it sometimes for me to talk to people I don't know while at the farmers markets I am making an extra point to keep telling the "correct" story on modern production agriculture.
Everything that lives has hormones!
There is no greater myth associated with food then that of hormone use in livestock.
While we don't use hormones that larger operations use, we don't condone the use of them. We just feel that as small as we are, we don't feel it is worth the added expense. But the dairy we work at uses rbST and hormone based shots to help bring the cows into heat to bred.
Here is an interesting fact that I learned this past weekend while attending the PA Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Conference.
A 3oz. serving of beef from an animal that has never been given estrogen based hormones contains 1.39 nanograms of estrogen compared with 1.89 ng of estrogen in the same amount of conventionally produced beef that has had 2 doses of estrogen based hormones. The difference is so insignificant and yet there are consumers willing to pay double just to get "hormone free" meat.
Have you had a salad lately?
Plant based hormones are so much higher then beef and milk and yet no one seams concerned over that. Remember that fact about conventional beef having 1.89 ng of estrogen?
While we don't use hormones that larger operations use, we don't condone the use of them. We just feel that as small as we are, we don't feel it is worth the added expense. But the dairy we work at uses rbST and hormone based shots to help bring the cows into heat to bred.
Here is an interesting fact that I learned this past weekend while attending the PA Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Conference.
A 3oz. serving of beef from an animal that has never been given estrogen based hormones contains 1.39 nanograms of estrogen compared with 1.89 ng of estrogen in the same amount of conventionally produced beef that has had 2 doses of estrogen based hormones. The difference is so insignificant and yet there are consumers willing to pay double just to get "hormone free" meat.
Have you had a salad lately?
Plant based hormones are so much higher then beef and milk and yet no one seams concerned over that. Remember that fact about conventional beef having 1.89 ng of estrogen?
4 oz. of raw cabbage has 2,700 ng of estrogen.
Here are some more comparisons:
Here are some more comparisons:
4oz. raw peas: 454 ng of estrogen
3oz. of soybean oil: 168,000 ng of estrogen
3.5oz. of soy protein concentrate: 102,000 ng of estrogen
Average soy latte (one cup of soy milk): 30,000 ng of estrogen
That 1.89 ng. in a serving of good healthy beef doesn't sound so bad afterall.
I mentioned that at the dairy we use rbST on our dairy cows. This technology gives us the opportunity to produce more milk with less cows. Less cows means less feed and less manure.
rbST get a lot of slack about how bad it is for you, yet most of the general public doesn't even know what it is. Here are some fact that will help to clear up some questions you might have.
3oz. of milk given rbST: 11ng of estrogen
3oz. of milk from non-treated rbST cow ***11ng. of estrogen*** REALLY!?
What is Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin (rbST)?
• Bovine Somatotropin (bST) is a protein molecule produced naturally by the cow and is essential for a cow to coordinate nutrient use and convert feed into milk.
• Cows with higher levels of bST are able to produce more milk.
• The same technology used to develop insulin for diabetes was utilized to develop and manufacture rbST so cows could be supplemented with bST to improve milk production.
• Manufactured rbST is the most researched animal product ever approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
• Since rbST was introduced in the early 1990s, hundreds of millions of units have been sold in the U.S. alone for use on millions of cows by tens of thousands of dairy farmers.
Is rbST safe for consumers?
• Yes, absolutely! Proteins such as rbST are made up of amino acids – the same amino acids found naturally in eggs, fruits, vegetables and other foods.
• bST’s activity is species limited. It is active in cows but has absolutely no effect in humans. This was demonstrated in the 1950s when bST was used in a failed attempt to treat childhood dwarfism. There was no impact on health at all.
• rbST cannot be distinguished from the cow’s own bST. All milk contains the same minute amounts of bST, including organic products or those labeled as rbST free.When milk is consumed, bST and rbST are digested just like any other food protein.
• All U.S. dairy products meet strict safety requirements, set by the FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) –making them some of the safest foods available.
What does rbST do for consumers?
• rbST reduces the price of milk!! It makes milk production more efficient and, when food production is more efficient, food is more abundant and less costly.
• rbST is one of many agricultural production tools and technologies which enhance the quality, abundance and affordability of food – just like artificial insemination (AI) or hybrid seed corn.
• rbST helps to conserve natural resources and reduce environmental impact.
What are the benefits of rbST to the environment?
• rbST leaves a smaller carbon footprint on the environment.
• rbST has beneficial effects on utilization of resources and on the environment because the same quantity of milk can be produced with fewer cows.
• Fewer cows per gallon of milk, means less use of water, feed, land and fuel, and less production of manure.
How do dairy producers benefit from rbST?
• The technology is size neutral, therefore equally effective in both small and large dairy herds that utilize good management practices. Cows remain healthy and productive.
• Today, dairy farmers are paying much higher feed costs and rbST helps producers reduce the impact of these higher feed prices on their farm operations.
• Milk production efficiency (the ratio of milk produced to feed consumed) and especially, profits are increased as cows produce more milk.
• An example – the University of Illinois conducted a study to evaluate the impact of removing rbST from the University’s ~200 cow dairy herd. Using typical milk prices and feed, labor and rbST costs, they concluded the economic loss of stopping rbST would be dramatic – ranging from $20,000 to $60,000 less INCOME annually.
So there you have it. I hope you take this knowledge and help spread the word.
3oz. of soybean oil: 168,000 ng of estrogen
3.5oz. of soy protein concentrate: 102,000 ng of estrogen
Average soy latte (one cup of soy milk): 30,000 ng of estrogen
That 1.89 ng. in a serving of good healthy beef doesn't sound so bad afterall.
I mentioned that at the dairy we use rbST on our dairy cows. This technology gives us the opportunity to produce more milk with less cows. Less cows means less feed and less manure.
rbST get a lot of slack about how bad it is for you, yet most of the general public doesn't even know what it is. Here are some fact that will help to clear up some questions you might have.
3oz. of milk given rbST: 11ng of estrogen
3oz. of milk from non-treated rbST cow ***11ng. of estrogen*** REALLY!?
What is Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin (rbST)?
• Bovine Somatotropin (bST) is a protein molecule produced naturally by the cow and is essential for a cow to coordinate nutrient use and convert feed into milk.
• Cows with higher levels of bST are able to produce more milk.
• The same technology used to develop insulin for diabetes was utilized to develop and manufacture rbST so cows could be supplemented with bST to improve milk production.
• Manufactured rbST is the most researched animal product ever approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
• Since rbST was introduced in the early 1990s, hundreds of millions of units have been sold in the U.S. alone for use on millions of cows by tens of thousands of dairy farmers.
Is rbST safe for consumers?
• Yes, absolutely! Proteins such as rbST are made up of amino acids – the same amino acids found naturally in eggs, fruits, vegetables and other foods.
• bST’s activity is species limited. It is active in cows but has absolutely no effect in humans. This was demonstrated in the 1950s when bST was used in a failed attempt to treat childhood dwarfism. There was no impact on health at all.
• rbST cannot be distinguished from the cow’s own bST. All milk contains the same minute amounts of bST, including organic products or those labeled as rbST free.When milk is consumed, bST and rbST are digested just like any other food protein.
• All U.S. dairy products meet strict safety requirements, set by the FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) –making them some of the safest foods available.
What does rbST do for consumers?
• rbST reduces the price of milk!! It makes milk production more efficient and, when food production is more efficient, food is more abundant and less costly.
• rbST is one of many agricultural production tools and technologies which enhance the quality, abundance and affordability of food – just like artificial insemination (AI) or hybrid seed corn.
• rbST helps to conserve natural resources and reduce environmental impact.
What are the benefits of rbST to the environment?
• rbST leaves a smaller carbon footprint on the environment.
• rbST has beneficial effects on utilization of resources and on the environment because the same quantity of milk can be produced with fewer cows.
• Fewer cows per gallon of milk, means less use of water, feed, land and fuel, and less production of manure.
How do dairy producers benefit from rbST?
• The technology is size neutral, therefore equally effective in both small and large dairy herds that utilize good management practices. Cows remain healthy and productive.
• Today, dairy farmers are paying much higher feed costs and rbST helps producers reduce the impact of these higher feed prices on their farm operations.
• Milk production efficiency (the ratio of milk produced to feed consumed) and especially, profits are increased as cows produce more milk.
• An example – the University of Illinois conducted a study to evaluate the impact of removing rbST from the University’s ~200 cow dairy herd. Using typical milk prices and feed, labor and rbST costs, they concluded the economic loss of stopping rbST would be dramatic – ranging from $20,000 to $60,000 less INCOME annually.
So there you have it. I hope you take this knowledge and help spread the word.
I got some of the facts I have in this post from Trent Loos. He was the speaker at the conference I was at this past weekend. He has a great voice in agriculture. To learn more about Trent visit http://www.facesofag.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment