11. März 2011
Hormonfleisch: Anzeige von Wissenschaftlern von Lobbyverband konzipiert
Eine australische Supermarkt-Kette hat in dieser Woche angekündigt, nur noch Rindfleisch zu verkaufen, das ohne Wachstumshormone produziert wird. Hintergrund: 40% (!) der australischen Rinder werden mit Hormonen behandelt.
Daraufhin erschien in der Tageszeitung The Australian eine ganzseitige Anzeige von 35 Wissenschaftlern, die die Ankündigung als „bad for the environment, bad for people and bad for animals“ diskreditierten. Einen Tag später kam raus, dass die Anzeige von dem Lobbyverband Animal Health Alliance, dem auch Bayer angehört, organisiert wurde.
The Australian March 11, 2011
=Drug companies funded vets hormone ad
SUPERMARKET chain Coles blasted eminent scientists yesterday for lobbying against its hormone-free beef in a campaign bankrolled by drug companies.
Natasha Bita
Thirty-five leading veterinary scientists – including CSIRO livestock industries chief Alan Bell – signed a full-page advertisement in The Australian yesterday branding the Coles hormone ban as „bad for the environment, bad for people and bad for animals“.
They said the chain‚s decision to ban all beef with added hormones would increase farmers‘ production costs, without benefiting consumers.
But the campaign backfired yesterday when it was revealed that the Animal Health Alliance – representing the major veterinary drug manufacturers including Bayer, Pfizer and Novartis – had bankrolled it.
Coles spokesman Jim Cooper said the campaign was „really about protecting the interest of the pharmaceutical companies“.
„It‚s colourful, emotive rhetoric from scientists,“ he said. „The scientists may be well-meaning but we believe they potentially are just being used by a group keen to protect its commercial interests.“
Mr Cooper said Coles had never claimed hormones were unsafe, and cited scientific studies – including one from the CSIRO – that concluded some cuts of hormone-free beef could be more tender.
The scientists‘ spokesman, Ian Lean, adjunct professor at the University of Sydney‚s veterinary school, said the veterinarians had come up with the idea of the campaign and contributed to the cost.
„We went to the animal health companies because there is an overlap of interests, and we‘ve gone to them to get the muscle to present our view,“ he said.
Professor Lean accused Coles of scaring consumers into thinking hormone-free beef was better.
„For Coles to go out and say it’s about tenderness is absolutely not correct,“ he said.
About 40 per cent of Australian cattle were injected with growth hormones, testosterone or oestrogen, he said, which meant they consumed a third less food and water.
