The dinner bell rang loud and clear. Treat chickens with DES and you've got fast-producing, lower cost chicken on America's dining table.

All was hunky-dory until in the 1950s the FDA began processing reports that showed that low income southern state males, and dogs, were beginning to show sing of "feminization". In other words, DES or diethylstilbestrol traces in the chicken were building up in the tissues of 1st and 2nd generation males, altering male hormonal activity, resulting in un-descended testicles, higher pitched feminine range voices, abnormal breast enlargement, a small penis, impotence, infertility and increased risk for testicular cancer. What a price for a cheap meal!

Chicken Says Goodbye To DES - Beef And Women Say Hello. Proving the brilliance of Big Government "consumer protection", the FDA and Department of Agriculture created the necessary sort of media ballyhoo about chickens feminizing American males, with the result that DES or diethylstilbestrol was banned as a growth hormone in "chicken production".

However, in a left-hand-doesn't-know-what-the-right-hand-is-doing decision, the same governmental bodies sanctioned the use of DES or diethylstilbestrol for "beef cattle" production.

No surprise that beef cattle would be enhanced by DES, cattle would grow larger quicker, move to the slaughtering sheds almost a month earlier, cost less to feed and produce more profits, yet result in a continuing supply of low cost meat for the American consumer! Just like we like it!

And where were you in the "food chain"? If you had a steak in the years 1954 to around 1981, then you were munching on residue DES, antibiotics and who-knows-what-else. About 95% of total US beef production exploited the nature-bending properties of diethylstilbestrol!

What About Pregnant Women? By 1957 pharmaceutical ads run in obstetrics and gynecology publications trumpeted the claim that "you can build a bigger stronger baby by using DES" despite earlier known research that hormone manipulation during pregnancy was risky business. Who knows how many diethylstilbestrol scripts were handed out, like candy or vitamins to unsuspecting Mums?