Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
average age of onset of puberty was seventeen—now, on average,
girls start their periods at age twelve. This trend has been blamed
in part on the dramatic increase of animal foods in the diet. Earlier
puberty and breast development mean more lifetime estrogen ex-
posure, which can mean higher risk of breast cancer later in life.
Cows raised organically may not be injected with bovine growth
hormone, but they still produce milk filled with natural growth
and sex hormones, such as estrogen, progesterone, and testos-
terone. Milk from a cow has been specially designed by nature to
turn a 65-pound calf into a 500-pound cow or bull in just a single
year. So maybe milk does a body good if you need to gain a few
hundred extra pounds, but, otherwise, it might not be the best
choice.
According to the USDA, about one in six U.S. cows has clinical
mastitis, a painful udder infection that can drip pus and blood into
the animal's milk. The United States has the highest permitted up-
per limit of milk pus cell concentration in the world—almost twice
the international standard of allowable pus cells—a shocking (and
incredibly unappetizing) 180 million per cup, compared to 96 mil-
lion per cup in Europe. The dairy industry insists that this presents
no health hazard, because any bacteria present would be killed by
pasteurization. Even if the pus
is
cooked, though, do we want to
feed it to our children?
It's like the meat industry with its irradiation. Instead of cleaning
up its own act, it's more cost-effective just to irradiate the meat
and kill off any bacteria and viruses present in the fecal material
contaminating the carcass. But even if it's sterilized, why serve up
fecal matter in
any
kitchen.
By choosing not to eat animals, their milk, or their eggs, espe-
cially in the age of modern hygiene and water supply purification,
we are not being naturally exposed to enough B12, a vitamin pro-
duced by bacteria that inhabit many of the animals people eat, so
