Almost a century ago, the U. S. Congress established the U. S. Food and Drug Administration, one of the world's oldest and most effective agencies fighting for a safer food supply. And yet, most of the beef we eat in America is banned in Europe. More than a year ago, the World Trade Organization ruled that the EU ban on imports of U. S. beef raised with hormones was not based on scientific evidence and was therefore a violation of WTO rules - rules the EU itself played a key role in establishing. Yet the EU has refused to lift the ban. We believe that it is about trade - that neither health nor consumer choice are at issue.
Hormones occur naturally in all plants and animals.
The egg you buy in the supermarket has about as much estradiol, a naturally occurring hormone, as 6 kilograms of beef from a steer raised using the same hormone. Half a liter of milk contains about 9 times as much estradiol as a 250 gram steak from a hormone-treated steer. Even among cattle, hormone levels vary widely. A bull has a much higher hormone level than a steer, even a steer raised using hormones. Thus much European beef, which comes from bulls, may actually contain higher levels of hormones than American beef, which comes predominantly from steers.