coming from dairy farmers as well as animal welfare
advocates.Thisisscarcelysurprising,forstudiesatCornell
University and the United States Congress Office of
TechnologyAssessmenthaveindicatedthattheadoptionof
BSTby thelargerfarms couldput out ofbusiness 80,000
American dairy farmers—half the present number.^110 One
dairyfarmerfromthewestofEnglandhaspointedout that
“themainbeneficiaries ofthesecowinjectionswouldbea
numberof high flyingpharmaceutical companies” and has
pleaded:“Atleastletushavemilkfromcontentedcowsand
not from greedy industrialists’ pin cushions.”^111
Buttheproductionincreasesbroughtaboutbybovinegrowth
hormonearenothing comparedto those anticipatedby the
enthusiastsofnewreproductivetechnology.In 1952 thefirst
calfwasproducedbymeansofartificialinsemination.Today
this isvirtuallythestandardmethod.In the1960sthefirst
calveswereproducedfromembryostransferredfromonecow
to another. This technology means that with the use of
hormoneinjections,aparticularlyhigh-yieldingcowcanbe
madeto producedozens of eggsat onetime. After she is
artificially inseminatedusing semen from a prizebull, the
embryos can be flushed out of her womb
and transplanted into cheaper surrogate cows through
incisionsintheirflanks. Thusawhole herdcanrapidlybe
bred from only thevery best stock. The ability to freeze
embryos, developed during the 1970s, has made embryo
transfermore easily marketable, and now150,000 embryo
transfersareattemptedeachyearintheUnitedStates,withat
least100,000 calvesresultingfrom theseattempts.Genetic
engineering,andperhapscloning,willbethenextstepsinthe
continuing efforts to create ever more productive animals.^112