So I've never really looked into this or read anything about it so I decided to see what I can find. Obviously there's a ton of stuff from both sides saying they're right so I tried to find medical journals to get an unbiased view. Sounds like growth hormones pose little risk to humans (although one study apparently found a link between growth hormones in livestock and early puberty in girls which is linked to breast cancer, but I couldn't find a link to the study so take it with a grain of salt). One thing that was consistently mentioned was that the widespread overuse of antibiotics in livestock is a concern.
Quote:
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However, many scientists, activists, regulators, and politicians have expressed urgent concerns on using antibiotics in food animals, since it could cause resistant strains of bacteria that harm human health. WHO (2002) recommended that the use of antimicrobials for disease prevention can only be justified when it can be shown that a particular disease is present on the premises or is likely to occur. Meanwhile, the control of subclinical diseases and therapeutic interventions for recognized clinical bacterial diseases by using antibacterial agents is frequently the only practical option, and therapy creates burdens in both economic and humane perspectives when disease-prevention measures fail (Phillips et al., 2004; Snary et al., 2004) . Many of the concerns on the usage of antimicrobial growth promoters are focused on the contamination of food with bacteria that are resistant to antimicrobials. However, there is a continuing debate on the impact of antimicrobial use in animal husbandry and the risk of resistance transmission to human pathogens.
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3834504/
Still not nearly the panic inducing crap the media spits out about this issue.
That being said it's a business. If the consumer doesn't want it you have to adapt. Woe is me isn't a great strategy to take here. Instead I think they should try to educate the public somehow but I guess they were kinda caught asleep at the wheel. Your average consumer is going to have a hard time believing Beef Farmers trying to tell them that the profit increasing substances the public has been hearing are bad for them for so many years are actually fine....