David Ehrenfeld

About the author: David Ehrenfeld is a professor of biology at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He is the author of several books on biology and conservation, including Genes, Populations, and Species.

Agricultural biotechnology has undesirable health effects for people and animals. For example, cows treated with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) suffer side effects ranging from feeding disorders to mastitis, an udder infection that can lead to abnormal milk. Because these cows need more protein, they are often fed ground-up animals, which can lead to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or "mad cow disease."As a result of rBGH and these feeding methods, humans are at greater risk for breast and gastro-intestinal cancers and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is analogous to BSE. The only beneficiaries of biotechnology are the chemical and seed companies who sell...