Corby Kummer: American Pork Manufacturers Rethink Their Use Of A 'Dangerous' Feed Additive

Ractopamine is a controversial feed additive that many pork manufacturers give to their market hogs in order to increase size and production. The feed additive is banned in the European Union, China, and over a hundred other nations, but is allowed to be used in the United States. Yet earlier this month, Tyson Foods, the largest American pork processor, announced it will prohibit ractopamine from its hogs beginning in 2020.

Food writer Corby Kummer joined Boston Public Radio *on Tuesday to talk about why some American manufacturers are rethinking the use of ractopamine and why the feed additive is banned in many countries.

"This is one of the many drugs fed to animals that fattens pigs faster so they gain weight and come to market much faster," Kummer said. "Obviously it's cheaper for producers because they can sell their pigs off and kill them sooner."

Ractopamine's effects are harmful to both humans and hogs, Kummer said.

"It's really dangerous and it causes crazed behavior, as if you're completely hopped up and nutty if there's too high of a human dose, and I think it's terrible for the health of the pigs too," he said. "China has banned it, the US has not, and the USDA never had a good excuse for this."

Some American-owned companies like Tyson Foods are stopping their use of ractopamine so that they can sell pork to the Chinese market, Kummer added.

"Manufacturers need that Chinese market and swine flu is killing off half the pigs in China," he said.

*Kummer is a *senior editor at The Atlantic*, an award-winning food writer, and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy.