Feedlot animals were castrated for handling ease, although bulls can, in fact, be handled safely. And even though a bull has clear advantages in terms of rate and efficiency of growth over a steer, it is worth significantly less on the sales floor than a castrated animal. When bulls are castrated they must be given hormones to stimulate growth. And because the grain cartels have succeeded in convincing consumers that cheap vegetable oils are preferable to more expensive animal fats, the type of hormones now used directs the growth into meat rather than fat. These implants show the greatest gains on feedlot diets-grain instead of pasture.
Hormone implants conform the animal to feeding conditions and to the market.
For every dollar spent on hormone implants, there are returns of seven to ten dollars to the rancher. Plant foods are not exempt under the industrial system. Monocropping makes pesticide use essential. The push for GMO's is simple a push to build hormone-based pesticides into the structure of the plant. Modern soybeans produce hormones in the form of phytoestrogens.