NPR (Feb. 26): "Roquefort cheese is about to become very expensive in the United States — and French cheesemakers are tres unhappy. On the way out of office, the Bush administration slapped a 300 percent tariff on Roquefort, in response to the European Union's refusal to lift a ban on hormone-treated American beef....
....Most bleu cheeses are made with cows' milk, but Roquefort is made with ewes' milk. Only sheep are able to thrive in the arid, hilly terrain...
Local legend says the cheese actually got its start some 2,000 years ago in Roman times, when a young shepherd happened on a beautiful girl and stowed his lunch away in a cave to follow her.
Upon his return, his cheese sandwich was covered in blue mold. Famished, he ate it anyway, and Roquefort was born. (We never do find out if our shepherd gets the girl.)
The U.S. first applied tariffs on Roquefort in 1999 to protest the EU beef ban...". Read more.
The EU showed that growth promoting hormones used by cattle farmers in some countries can cause cancer and should therefore be banned. The hormones of special concern that are routinely pumped into US beef are: melegestrol acetate, progesterone, testosterone, trenbolone and zeranol. These hormones are known to disrupt the human body's natural balance. Read more on the hormone use in US beef , why American beef is banned in Europe, and the EU- US beef trade dispute.
So, I wonder, why does not the US government ban using hormones in its beef, and actively promote healthy food policy?
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