Beef Hormones and the European Community

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Beef Hormones and the European Community
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Why Use Hormones?

• The use of hormones provides several benefits in
  beef production

A hormone-treated animal gains weight more
rapidly, producing a more flavorful and tender
product.
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By reaching market weight sooner, there is a
reduction in the cost of beef production. Thus,
consumers are provided with a higher quality of
meat at lower prices.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has
been thoroughly researching the effects of growth
hormones since the 1950s.
FDA and other scientific experts have found that
there is essentially no difference between beef
from animals raised using hormones and those
raised without their use.
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Each implant contains a specific, legally
authorized dosage of the hormone.
The implant itself is inserted into the ear,
which is discarded at slaughter and does not
enter the human food chain.
With an implant, the hormone is released into the
bloodstream very slowly, so that the
concentration of the hormone remains relatively
constant and very low.
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Beef from a bull (which is not castrated and to
which hormones have not been administered)
contains testosterone levels over ten times
higher than the amount in beef from a steer
(which is castrated) that has received hormones
for growth promotion.
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Since the European beef market is predominantly
bull-sourced, while American meat is
steer-sourced, American hormone-treated beef
generally contains lower levels of hormones than
most European beef.
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Consumer lobbyist groups were able to
successfully influence the European Parliament to
enact regulations in the 1980s.
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The U.S. Government made a complaint to the
World Trade Organization (WTO) about the EU's
hormone ban in 1996.
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The complaint was upheld because the EU was said
to have failed to justify its ban on the basis of
adequate scientific evidence.
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Europe refused to comply with the ruling and the
US has been applying punitive tariffs to some
European goods including, for example, French
Roquefort cheese.
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The Banana Trade War
This dispute began with the creation of the
European Union's single market in 1993.
The EU created erected new barriers to bananas
exported from Latin America and marketed by U.S.
companies.
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This policy took export opportunities away from
U.S. companies and gave them to EU companies.
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The United States and five other Latin America
countries filed a case against the EU banana
constraints in 1997.
In view of the EU's continued noncompliance with
the original findings, the WTO authorized the
U.S. to impose retaliatory sanctions on 191
million of EU exports.
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This dispute was ultimately resolved in 2001
when EU expanded its licensing agreement to
include non-European companies
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GMOs and Europe
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In Europe all foods and feed produced from GMOs,
including products that no longer contain
detectable traces of GMOs must be labeled.