On Food and Cooking

synthetic hormones, including estrogen and
testosterone, produce leaner, more muscular
cattle more rapidly and on less feed. There is
ongoing research into a variety of growth
factors and other drugs that would help
producers fine-tune the growth and
proportions of fat to lean in cattle and other
meat animals.
Currently, beef producers are allowed to
treat meat cattle with six hormones in the
United States, Canada, Australia, and New
Zealand, but not in Europe. Hormone
treatments were outlawed in the European
Economic Community in 1989 in response to
well-publicized abuses; a few Italian veal
producers injected their calves with large
quantities of the banned steroid DES, which
ended up in bottled baby food and caused
changes in the sexual organs of some infants.
Laboratory studies indicate that meat from
animals treated with allowed hormone levels
contains only minute hormone residues, and