Some people prefer milk from cows which have not been given hormones, specifically recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST. Other people don’t give a shit or have never heard of the issue and just get the cheapest cow squeezins’ they see in the dairy case. But if you as a dairyman choose not to use these hormones, shouldn’t you have a right to put a label on your milk bottles saying so?
Not in Pennsylvania you don’t. Because it makes other milk producers, who do use hormones, products look bad. Via the Allentown Morning Call:
The state Department of Agriculture is delaying ordering dairy farmers to stop labeling their products as free of an artificial hormone until it does more research on the controversial supplement injected into cows to boost milk production.Last month, Pennsylvania became the first state to announce it was putting an end to milk sold with a label indicating it is free of a genetically engineered growth hormone. It gave the 19 farmers who do not use recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST, until Jan. 1 to remove any variation of that wording from their milk containers.
The farmers will now have until Feb. 1 to comply.Opponents from Pennsylvania and across the nation flooded the agency with calls and e-mails, prompting Gov. Ed Rendell to delay the implementation by a month.
Hmm, weren’t we told that didn’t work and never made any difference? But back on topic, let’s look at the “state’s” take on the matter:
The changes came in response to recommendations made by the 22-member Food Labeling Advisory Committee, formed last fall at the request of Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff.
A little emphasis there, the relevance of which will be apparent in a moment. We continue with the state’s (actually this committee’s) rationale:
Current milk labeling, the group found, was misleading the public by using terms such as ”hormone-free, ”pesticide-free” and ”antibiotic-free” because all milk has naturally occurring hormones and state regulations already prohibit milk from containing pesticides or antibiotics.
Now we shall take a look at two people, in the business, on both sides of the issue. First, the hormone-free-and-pro-label-saying-so side:
Perrydell Farm in York County is one of 19 milk producers that received a letter from the state to change its labels.The 85-year-old farm opted not to use the synthetic product when it first learned of it 10 years ago, owner Tom Perry said. ”It was just another hassle, and it just ethically sounded like a stupid way to produce milk. We have a surplus in this country.”
Now the pro-hormone, anti-label faction shall be herd from (rimshot. Sorry):
Lebanon County farmer Daniel Brandt, who sat on the state labeling committee, has a different take. He said rBST labeling does not protect consumers and threatens the economic vitality of Pennsylvania’s dairy farmers.”It’s something that’s been a real profitable tool for us.We can’t keep moving backward with technology when something’s proven safe,” said Brandt.
I don’t want to go all Luddite here, but haven’t we grown old and wise enough to stop equating “technology” and “progress” with “good”? Automatically and by reflex? Especially when the guy assuring me of the technologyness and goodness of the product makes his first mention that it is “real profitable” for him. Honesty at least is to be commended.
In any case this is an example of how the price of milk—currently extortionate btw, and I will expire of rickets before I pay upwards of $3 a gallon for the stuff—is entirely political and jiggered for the benefit of everybody except the consumer. Damn if I find it reasonable for Guy 1 to tell Guy 2 he can’t put an accurate and truthful label on his product because it makes Guy 1’s product look bad by comparison.
Front page
Accuracy
You glossed over one of the key arguments here: the labeling is misleading. Hormones are key to most things complex organisms do, and that includes plants. It would be surprising if some naturally occurring hormones didn’t end up in cow milk, and from the linked article it looks like some do. Science-savvy people will know enough to figure out that “hormone free” means “raised without added hormones,” but there are a lot of people out there who aren’t scientifically savvy and we don’t want to reinforce their ignorance. Repeated encounters with “hormone free” labeling could make “hormone” yet another scientific term which the majority of Americans don’t seem to understand, a very real cost to this nonsense.
Easier solution. End CAFO dairy operations.
NO tax breaks, strict EPA regulations, strict NIOSH and OSHA inspections, strict FDA inspections, must meet USDA standards and inspections shall be no less often than every week. NO more subsidies for milk, cotton, corn, tobacco, soybeans, wheat, and legalize industrial hemp.
I don't care
I honestly don’t care if they’re that stupid. This is the most insultingly pedantic rhetorical gambit since Bush started talking about “Fightin’ Al-Qaeda In Iraq”. It shouldn’t even pass the laugh test.
But I still believe
And I will rise up with fists!!
here the label reads
“no hormones added” which i think is sensible. i want to know what they add to my food, not the exact scientific description of what my food is without any additives.
it’s really not a difficult concept.
i also like to know what is sprayed on/injected into my food while it’s growing, and what is fed to it/grown on. again, not so much looking for precise scientific descriptions so much as info about the synthetic and chemical “improvements” to nature that people do over the course of food production.
some days it really chaps my ass that we’re so fucking uncivilized and “capitalist” that there is even an argument about such things. for christ’s sake, think of your children/loved ones. do you really want them to eat poison? or yourself?
If only cows rode bicycles
This is exactly the same question, Mr/Ms Hallquist, as is raised with high-end athletes, of which I pick Tour de France riders because it provides the most amusing headlines.
All mammals, for that matter most mortals, produce hormones as part of their bodily functioning. Even Tour de France riders, professional baseball players, Olympic track and field participants, etc. We forbid those sports players from ADDING hormones via injection or ingestion, because they have “performance enhancing” effects on the user’s body. Hitting ball hard, riding bike faster, making more milk on less feed-standards of “performance” differ but the principle is the same.
And oh me oh my do we make them wear labels if they are found to have used hormones. Think of the subject this way and it becomes a lot easier to understand.
Cows on bicycles. I like this visual more and more.
What Sarah said
Je repete:
Sounds like a reasonable agricultural policy me, as long as there’s a level playing field for corporate food and the small, local grower (hopefully organic)That’ll be the day. Dunno about inspection frequency, but as long as we’re not letting the feed lots get away with murder while sending inspectors off to Joe Organic, I’m fine.
And the legalizing industrial hemp: Absolutely. Why the heck aren’t we doing that instead of the ethanol scam, which IIRC consumes more oil than it produces and ties being able to eat quite directly to fluctuations in oil prices, as fuel crowds out food?
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
Love the "Tour de Food" concept
Cows on bicycles… Really needs a picture.
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
These people are idiots
They’re flying in the face of consumer demand. The big bizness farmers might be pissed that they’re losing market share, but we’re talking about something that moms care about. People have overwhelmingly decided they don’t trust this stuff, and no agribusiness cash funded regulatorr shenanigans are going to influence that. I don’t know a lot about PA politics, but I’d be surprised if this actually gets implemented.
Customers are not stupid! Let them decide.
People are not as stupid as you suppose. We DO understand the difference between naturally occuring hormones and an artificial product given to cows to make them produce more milk. A free market assumes that customers KNOW what they are buying. Anyone trying to hide what their product contains is fighting the free market system and is trying to profit dishonestly.