Beef hormone controversy

The Beef Hormone Dispute is one of the most intractable agricultural controversies since the establishment of the World Trade Organization.

It was sometimes called the "beef war" in the media, similarly to the UK-EU Beef war over the mad cow disease issue, creating some confusion, since these two wars overlapped in time.

In 1989, the European Union banned the importation of meat that contained artificial beef growth hormones approved for use and administered in the United States. Originally, the ban covered six such hormones but was amended in 2003 to permanently ban one hormone —estradiol-17β — while provisionally banning the use of the five others. WTO rules permit such bans, but only where a signatory presents valid scientific evidence that the ban is a health and safety measure. Canada and the United States opposed this ban, taking the EU to the WTO Dispute Settlement Body. In 1997, the WTO ruled against the EU. The EU appealed the ruling.

The hormones banned by the EU in cattle farming were estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, zeranol, melengestrol acetate and trenbolone acetate. Of these, the first three are synthetic versions of endogenous hormones that are naturally produced in humans and animals, and also occur in a wide range of foods, whereas the last two are synthetic and not naturally occurring, which mimic the behaviour of endogenous hormones. Zeranol (alpha-zearalanol) is produced semi-synthetically, but it also occurs naturally in some foods. It is one of several derivatives of zearalenone produced by certain Fusarium. Although its occurrence in animal products can be partly due to its ingestion in such feeds, alpha-zearalanol can also be produced endogenously in ruminants that have ingested zearalenone and some zearalenone derivatives in such feeds. The EU did not impose an absolute ban. Under veterinary supervision, cattle farmers were permitted to administer the synthetic versions of natural hormones for cost-reduction and possibly therapeutic purposes, such as synchronising the oestrus cycles of dairy cows. All six hormones were licensed for use in the US and in Canada.

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