Terry Etherton’s Blog on Hormones, Biotechnology, and Food Safety

Food Biotechnology:
A Study of U.S. Consumer Trends - 2007 REPORT
International Food Information Council (IFIC)

Terry Etherton’s Comments on IFIC Survey

The annual survey of consumer attitudes about food biotechnology has been released by the International Food Information Council. This report provides further affirmation that the vast majority of consumers are not concerned about the use of biotechnology in plant and animal agriculture. Read the rest of this entry »

Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
News Release Date: 3 August 2007

Following an investigation of suspected vesicular disease by Animal Health on a holding near Guildford in Surrey, United Kingdom, laboratory results have this evening indicated that the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) virus is present in samples from cattle on the premises. Read the rest of this entry »

Terry Etherton

Educating the public about the benefits of biotechnology, and the need for investing in research to discover the next generation of science-based products is challenging. Many in the scientific research community have as a top priority to conduct research and publish their findings in a scientific journal. Doing a lot of this is important in order to get the next grant funded so that the scientist can do more research, leading to more publications. It is an interesting cycle: get the research grant funded (which is hard to do), conduct the research, and publish the findings in papers published in peer-reviewed science journals. This creates visibility for the scientist (enhances their brand name) with the goal being to get more grants funded - an important objective for many scientists is to have a LOT of research funding. And then onward to fame! Never mind that a lot of the research conducted is never explained to the taxpayers so they can understand and appreciate what is going on, and why it is important. By the way, taxpayers are footing the bill for all the research supported by federal agencies such as the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation, among others. Read the rest of this entry »

Harvey Glick
The Economic Times (India)
Published June 19, 2007

In the 1960s, India produced only about 10 million metric tonnes of wheat annually, and crop failures created massive food shortages that required emergency shipments of grain to prevent widespread famine. Today, India produces over 70 million metric tonnes of wheat. This is due in large part to the success of the Green Revolution, based on new genetic improvements of crops combined with efficient use of crop production inputs. Read the rest of this entry »

By SHERRY BUNTING
Special for Farmshine

BROWNSTOWN, Pa. – The vegetarian activist group – Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) – may have won a battle against the dairy industry, but they are not winning the war. Since 2005, this group has put persistent pressure on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to end dairy promotion relating to weight-loss, contending the advertisements are “false and misleading.” Even though the ads are based on sound, published, peer-reviewed research. Read the rest of this entry »

Marcela Martinez, Graduate Student
Gabriella Varga, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor
Department of Dairy and Animal Science
Penn State University

Introduction by Terry Etherton

In the talks I have been giving across the United States about the importance of biotechnology in animal agriculture, I have a slide with a list of technologies beyond rbST use that likely will be attacked. This is not based on the scientific evidence but rather is driven by the smoke and mirrors milk-marketing campaigns that differentiate milk in the grocery store by the use of “absence claims” on the label.

These absence claims are deceptive, misleading, and are designed to convey to consumers that conventional milk contains antibiotics, pesticides, etc. As I have written about extensively in my Blogs, this is not true!

Well, we can strike rumensin off my list since a small dairy in Washington (Sno-Fresh) is now selling milk labeled as: “Free of Antibiotics, Rumensin, and rbST”. This defies logic.

For facts about what rumensin is, and that use in the dairy industry is FDA-approved and safe, read the Blog below written by Ms. Martinez and Dr. Varga. It is great!

Read the rest of this entry »