In the spirit of this past weekend's efforts to fight cancer, I felt the need to respond to Jonathan Grindell's letter.

His letter sparked a range of emotions in me after I read it. I, like he, have watched my own mother battle cancer. I agree with him when he says that cancer needs to be wiped from the face of this earth. There are a few things he needs to understand, however, before he makes statements such as those printed in his letter. Mr. Grindell attempts to blame the increasing number of cancer cases on our university's "bovine-growth infested Creamery ice cream."

First of all, any food products that are derived from an animal naturally contain growth hormones. We, as humans, produce growth hormone as well. Without it, nothing on this earth would be alive.

As for the synthetic form of bovine growth hormone that is administered to dairy cows in order to increased milk production, our body treats this as it would any other protein. Your body breaks down all proteins in the exact same way, regardless of whether they are synthetic or not.

I guarantee Mr. Grindell that consuming protein will not give him cancer, and I am sure that anyone involved with dairy and animal science would agree with me. It is accepted in the scientific community that most cases of cancer are a result of environmental factors and genetics, and are not caused by consuming an ice cream cone from our Creamery. The most important step we can take as a community in beating cancer is to educate ourselves, because knowledge is power.