Not in My Food.org : Know what you're eating
Cows without hormones – or consumers without choice?
Last month, in an Orwellian stretch of logic and without warning or any public discussion, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) notified 19 dairies that “their labels are false or misleading and need to be changed” So, what kinds of labels were so terrible that the PDA felt they had to be removed from milk cartons immediately? Labels that told the consumer that the cows that produced the milk had not been given any artificial hormones.
Examples of some of the supposedly “misleading” labels include, “Our farmers’ pledge: no artificial growth hormones,” “From cows not treated with the growth hormone rBST,” and “free of artificial growth hormones.” As of January 1, 2020, these labels will be illegal. The PDA says that such labels “confuse” consumers, “making it hard for consumers to make informed decisions.”
Some cows are in fact given an artificial hormone, produced by Monsanto. Called recombinant bovine growth hormone (rbGH) or recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST), it is a genetically engineered drug designed to increase milk production. However, farmers who don’t use the drug have discovered that many consumers actually prefer their milk produced the natural way, and are using their non-use of the hormone as a selling point.
We find the PDA’s sudden prohibition against farmers telling consumers they are not using hormones to be surprising, to say the least. Some 13 years ago, when the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made its controversial decision to approve the hormone use, it also issued guidance specifically saying that dairies whose farmers didn’t use the artificial hormone could label their milk as “from cows not treated with rbST/rbGH.”
During the years since then, consumers have increasingly sought out milk from untreated cows. Recently, a significant number of stores and chains, including Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Krogers, and Publix, have begun offering milk and other dairy products labeled as coming from cows not treated with rbGH or rbST.
In late 2002 Monsanto asked the Maine Attorney General to declare “Our Farmer’s Pledge: No Artificial Growth Hormones” labels “misleading” but he refused. (See our letter to the Maine Attorney General, asking that he not grant Monsanto’s request [PDF]). In 2007, Monsanto asked the FDA and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to take action against such labels, but they refused as well. In late August, the FTC wrote to Monsanto, “The FTC agrees with FDA that food companies may inform consumers in advertising, as in labeling, that they do not use rBST.” However, in the Governor and the Secretary of Agriculture of the state of Pennsylvania, Monsanto has apparently found a sympathetic ear.
Questions also remain about the safety of rbGH use, which FDA approved in 1993, but was rejected in Canada and the European Union (our op-ed on this issue can be found here [PDF]).
Your article is unclear. Are Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods acceptable in their labeling?
Utterly rediculous! Tell the young people who are all developing at age 7 – 8 that these hormones are not dangerous. How stupid do they think we all are?
I do not want rbGH, rbST or any other growth hormones in my food.
I am personally very interested whether or not the milk I buy was produced with growth hormones supplied to the cow. All the more power to the farmer who doesn’t use growth hormones and can earn more from his product because it’s organic. For the health of the nation we should follow Denmark and have as a goal an organic farming industry.
Hi Eric,
I always find it interesting when liberals are named in over-regulation of farming when every healthy, organic food eating, vegetarian I know is a liberal. We all support local, sustainable foods and encourage our state and federal legislators to do so as well. My state representative is a staunch conservative and is horrific about food and environmental issues. He refuses to do anything about the concentrated animal feed operations or the overuse of pesticides in orchards and groundwater contamination. He is a walking environmental disaster. How is not regulating this stuff helping? We need CORRECT intelligent regulation that allows for sustainble and planet supporting food production. I know very few conservatives that eat healthy and organic food. A few but nothing compared to the liberals I know and they are only “liberal” because they are for social justice, care of the environment, holistic health care, animal welfare, etc. Perhaps we all just get together on issues and drop the right/left/conservative/liberal labels. We’d probably get a lot more done and oust idiots like Glenn Beck who make no sense and just like to whip up non thinkers into a frenzy.
Not a milk drinker, but this will limit my cheese consumption. I do not expect to see cheese labels as “not of ME or PN milk”.
As liberals gain control of government, as government increasingly acts for profits without regard for greater good or sin or US Constitution, I continue to withdraw from society, I continue to move consumption from national commercial products to local grown products.
My fish consumption has gone near 0 due to SE Asian practices. Pork use is near 0.
Now milk produced in US of A is more suspect even while still in cows, so my cheese use is dropping. Pizza is too fattening anyway!
So how are we going to fight the spread of this gagging of responsible farmers as Monsanto spreads its ‘influence’ around? Wouldn’t it be nice if the FDA REQUIRED producers to state whether they used growth hormones — the way every last scrap of food coloring has to be listed?
Sorry, Pennsylvanians, but I am going to direct my energies to stopping the rot in MY state!
“Recently, a significant number of stores and chains, including Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Krogers, and Publix, have begun offering milk and other dairy products labeled as coming from cows not treated with rbGH or rbST.”
Are you saying that these stores are selling milk that contains rbGH or rbST? If so, which companies contain them?
It’s a shame that we would rather kill our kids and make money now, than save the children for the future generations.
Already you shouldn’t be using the hormone in the first place, but to lie about it too!?! Have you no ethics whatsoever? I pledge never to purchase anything your company has laid hands on, as well as to educate anyone with whom I come into contact about your evildoings. Talk about the Axis of Evil-in our own country. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
Cows and humans share an identical growth hormone Naturally that has been proven to increase rate of breast cancer growth…not to mention the milk with Added pus and growth hormones !!!Got kids? PLEASE
spend 5 minutes getting eye popping ,sound scientific research from THE NOTMILK MAN ,at notmilk.com, and click on Milk A-Z …No dairy products for 1 week has been shown to improve kids’ respiratory and bowel functioning, and more!Clean water ,organic soy milk ,but first, mama’s vegan breast are best!
I only buy milk with NO growth hormone and don’t find it confusing. I would hate to have to buy milk from Denmark!
Let me clear up a bit of confusion. There is no indication that the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture labeling ban is a reaction to companies lying about whether they are using artificial hormones. There has been no indication of fraud.
Monsanto Corp., the company that makes Prosilac (the artificial hormone rGBH) and some of the large dairy producers convinced the Department to issue the ban because they do not want consumers to be able to tell the difference between more naturally produced dairy products and the products that come from herds treated with artificial hormones.
If there are no labels, the consumer’s choice is limited to dairy or no dairy rather than artificial hormones or no artificial hormones. This is an issue of censoring truthful, useful labeling and in my opinion it’s purely about money.
Really, why doesn’t the producer have to list the fact that they DO use synthetic growth hormones? Why are they able to hide the facts and those who do not use them are unable to tell the truth? This trend has got to stop. We need gmo and country of origin labelling as well.
How nice… when you are told you are safe, it gets blocked. When your at risk, dress it up and make it sound good. So who is kicking back to who???
Seems like all companies are in the same bed with twelve other rattlesnakes.
This you tube story tells a lot about when the press tried to cover this story in the 1990′s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axU9ngbTxKw
Just as the manufactures of MSG monosodium glutmate disguise their product in foods like Cambel and Knor soups, Monsanto will soon find out that they can do the same and disguise the growth hormone in milk products as well. Woe be to the company that does it, because when the consumer finds out they will virtually boycott their product. Look out chicken farmers like Tyson who claim the no use of growth hormones. Have you seen chicken breasts lately. I swear, I can’t tell which is larger the chicken or the turkey?
The FDA Approved the use of rbST/rbGH in 1993. The first big surge in Autism happened in 1995. I strongly believe there is a link in the chemicals they use in our food to increases in Autism.
When are we going to put a stop to Big Agri, Big Pharma and all the other BIG bullies from making personal freedom choices for us?! It’s time to act!
I think it preposterous for the FDA to prohibit
any dairy producers the right to label their milk containers with the notation “No Growth Hormones”
i personally believe we are at a crossroads with what i have heard regarding this b.s. in not allowing pennsylvanians the right to know what is in their food. that goes for the rest of us.i would like to know what percentage of “sludge” is being used in all our foods. sludge for those of you who don’t know …is what is left over after our sewage has been “cleaned”.i know in canada, they have found sludge used in their fertila. what fertilizer is our government using or allowing elsewhere in food we grow in other countries?how can we become more informed if we have people like the governor of pennsylvania and the head of the agriculture purposely misleading their constituents?
I want to know that there is no growth hormones in my milk. I hope by using only organic milk I will be safe.
We have been purchasing milk with labels that state they DON’T HAVE GROWTH HORMONES. It’s wrong to leave off that info. We are entitled to know! I understand that use of hormones can be painful for the cows and cause infections in utters which can then taint the milk.
I just read 22 of the most stupid comments I have ever heard. All you dummies need to study real science and stop subscribing to your dumb ass activist magazines. The only reason there is a problem is retail stores are trying to find a better market to squeeze another doller out of you idiots and you are sure helping them out.
MILK IS MILK IT IS ALL SAFE NO MATTER WHAT YOU READ!!!!!!!
I’m confused! Is the PA Dept Ag ban saying a producer may not say “no artificial hormones” when the cows received natural hormones? Will PA allow one to label “No hormones”?? If so, get off their back: to label “no artificial hormones” when other hormones are used is indeed misleading!
My read of this site makes it seem that they are being reasonable:http://www.agriculture.state.pa.us/agriculture/cwp/view.asp?a=3&q=145988
The reporting and comments on this issue are very sloppy and often use “hormone”, “artificial hormone” and “growth hormone” interchangeably.
I just got a mass-mailing from CU about this matter and found it dreadfully lacking in clarity and detail. And I’m ticked off that the author provides no email or phone contact info.
Anyone is free to drink milk from large commercial dairy herds if they want to, Dale. However, I and many others should be equally free to choose milk from herds that are not treated with artificial growth hormones. It’s our choice — that’s the whole point of this country. Remember when companies told us that DDT was safe? CCA-treated (pressure-treated) wood? Chlordane? Are you seeing a pattern here? It’s my right to be proactive about my health if I choose to. Why should you care how I spend my money? I dont care if you choose to support commercial intersts — knock yourself out, just dont get in my way and tell me how to choose my food. Consumers deserve to know how their milk was produced. “Real science” cant deny that there is a difference in milk production between treated and untreated cows — that’s the whole reason for the hormone in the first place. If I choose to support farms that dont use artificial hormones on their cows, that is MY RIGHT. STOP GETTING IN THE WAY OF OTHER PEOPLE’S RIGHTS!
I am a breast cancer survivor whose cancer was hormone positive. I therefore try to limit my intake of hormone treated meat and dairy products. This is a health related issue for many women and we have a right to know what we are buying!
I am against BGH as much as any of the readers above, and probably more so because I remember reading long ago about the history of how this all came about, and how millions of cows were slaughtered to cut down on their number, in anticipation of the new chemical’s socalled wonders. Entire herds were just eliminated everywhere, and many small dairy farmers were put out of business. Nevertheless, I just thought I’d put some perspective on the subject of dairy products, and tell you what Tobias Smollett wrote in 1771 in a book called “The Expedition of Humpry Clinker, describing milk and butter in London at that time: “Milk is the produce of faded cabbage leaves and sour draff, lowered with hot water, frothed with bruised snails, carried through the streets in open pails. The tallowy, rancid mass called butter is manufactured with candle grease and kitchen stuff.” So we have made some progress since then. http://www.sonjarants.blogspot.com
I live in Pa and I am very upset they sold us out to Monsanto,
Can we get growth hormones banned completely in the US like other places have done? I was bleeding nonstop for 10 years. Doctors told me nothing could be done. I discovered that I have what is called “Estrogen Dominance”. It is caused by too many hormones in the body. It has cleared up since eliminating meat and dairy, and taking a plant based estrogen metabolizer. I wonder who else is suffering.
This is a breach of our First Amendment rights to free speech and needs to be fought on this grounds.