The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the sale of bovine
somatotrophin (BST), a cow hormone which the US chemicals company Monsanto
produces with recombinant DNA. Monsanto says BST increases milk yields in
cows by up to 20 per cent. It is banned in the European Union, for fear
that it would allow European farmers to produce an expensive surplus ‘milk
lake’.
There are similar fears in the US. The FDA declared BST safe and effective,
but will not release it for sale until February, while the Congressional
budget office studies its economic impact. The office calculates that if
only one in five farmers uses BST in the first year it is sold, the government
will have to spend $15 million to buy the surplus milk.
