The Story of Milk

Let's take a look at all genetically engineered milk has to offer us. Here's a product that makes cows produce more milk than they're naturally equipped to give, and that as a result destroys the physical condition of the animals, interfering with their breeding cycles when it doesn't destroy the outright, and that also causes infections in their udders, which in turn compels farmers to increase their use of antibiotics, aggravating an unhealthy dynamic whose ultimate result will be enhanced enemy microorganisms. The milk produced by the implementation of this engineering miracle contains elevated levels of a growth hormone implicated in a variety of cancers and other diseases.

The costs of using the products are significant, starting with the costs of the drug itself, then adding to that the costs of the labour involved in injecting it and the extra feed needed to help the cows sustain the unnatural burden to their systems, and the veterinary costs that are so inevitably linked to the product's use that the manufacturer included vet vouchers as a sales tool to help offset that expense. the recommended feed to help cows survive the demands of the product is animal protein, which raises the specter that the product's use could advance the spread of Mad Cow disease.

By appealing exclusively to large dairy herds, the product threatens to pit the large farmer against the family farmer. To the extent that it works as advertised and helps farmers produce more milk, it will only add to the chronic oversupply and help depress milk prices further, thereby throwing more family dairy farmers out of business. And by reducing consumer confidence in the safety of milk, it limits demand for milk as well as other dairy products, again depressing prices and threatening the livelihood of the small farmer.

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