Hormone 1. a. Any of numerous organic compounds that are secreted into the body fluids of an animal, particularly the bloodstream, by a specific group of cells and regulate some specific physiological activity of other cells; also, any synthetic compound having such an effect. b. Restricted to those compounds that have a stimulating (rather than an inhibiting) effect. Now rare.

2. Any of numerous organic compounds produced by plants which regulate growth and other physiological activities; also, any synthetic compound having such an effect.

3. attrib. and Comb., as hormone activity, balance, therapy, treatment, weedkiller; hormone-like adj.; hormone-controlled ppl. adj.; hormone cream, a skin cream that contains one or more sex hormones.

To a layperson ‘raging hormones’, those chemicals that arise in the body during puberty are what is most frequently associated with the word hormone. In reality hormones are much what makes you go crazy as a teenager. Endocrinology is the study of hormones and encompasses knowledge of the structure and function of all of the following glands that produce hormones.

Figure 2. Diagram showing endocrine glands.

There are two major classes of hormones are proteins, peptides, and modified amino acids, and steroids.

Figure 3. A signaling response generated by a hormone.

Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (also knows as BGH, RBGH, BST and rBST) is a genetically engineered copy of a naturally occurring hormone produced by cows. It had been manufactured by Monsanto Company and sold to dairy farmers under the name POSILAC. When rBGH is injected into dairy cows, milk production can increase by as much as 10-15% and this procedure was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in late 1993 and has been in use since 1994.

The controversy over rBGH is that it is unhealthy for cows. Read the label information on POSILAC, even the manufacturer admits injections of the drug may cause a wide variety of serious health problems in cows. Secondly, rBGH affects the nutritional value of milk. Studies have shown that the use of rBGH increases the time during which cows give lower quality milk with decreased protein. Thirdly, rBGH causes milk to sour before its time. Finally, rBGH threatens the survival of family farms because small, decentralized farms are better for the land, the water, animals and communities than large factory farms who depend on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and land damaging farm techniques.

For these reasons, consumers want to be able to identify the products on the market today that do not contain milk from cows treated with rBGH. Companies such as Ben & Jerry's choose to identify their product as one which does not use rBGH.

With such negative media hype over the use of biotechnology to create products such as POSILAC (rBGH) it is no wonder that the general public looks so unfavorably on biotechnology as a whole and associates it with being unnatural and in some instances cruel.