At a meeting earlier this month in Washington, the US government asked its Thai counterparts to do something they have never done, and should not do. In brief, the US delegation to bilateral trade talks asked Thailand to legalise a drug and put it in animal feed. The drug, ractopamine, is banned in 160 countries including Thailand. The back story to this disappointing US chicanery is that if Thailand legalises and allows Thai farmers to use ractopamine, Washington will then demand the end of the Thai ban on US pork.
Ractopamine is meant to be added to commercial cattle and swine feed shortly before the animals are slaughtered. It promotes leanness in the animals' meat, making them more valuable at the slaughterhouse and in the market. There are several medical problems with this. First and foremost, ractopamine has never been properly tested on humans. In animals, it is known to cause birth defects, disability, death and more. In humans, it is certain that the drug causes increased heart rates.
Ractopamine is used throughout all three countries of North America. In addition, however, two dozen other countries including Japan and South Korea agree that it is safe for human consumption. Boiled down, the argument in these countries is that limited tests have not shown severe harm to humans. Because it has not been proved harmful, ractopamine is legal -- and should be legal elsewhere.
