Issues Raised by New Agricultural Technologies: Livestock Growth Hormones

Consumers should benefit from the new livestock growth hormone technology in terms of slightly lower prices in the long run. Rapid and widespread adoption of growth hormones may affect many markets, but the effects are generally small even in the short run. Only under extremely optimistic conditions would government commodity program outlays be reduced in the long run. Most other longrun effects are indistinguishable from normal year-to-year changes. Hormone use will encourage structural trends already underway in the livestock industries, namely specialization and fewer but larger farms. This study looks at the extent of possible changes brought about by 100-percent adoption of growth hormones