Federal court rules on rbST in milk

[wshaffer]

So, apparently a couple of years ago, Ohio passed a law banning milk producers from labeling their milk as free from rbST, a form of synthetic growth hormone given to cows to make them produce more milk. Unsurprisingly, the Sixth Circuit Court just ruled this unconstitutional on free speech grounds. Duh.

What was more interesting to me was that the court went further, and ruled that milk from cows treated with rbST is compositionally different from milk from untreated cows. Which directly contradicts what the FDA said when it approved rbST for use.

Now, I've always taken the FDA statement about rbST at face value. I buy rbST-free milk, but I do so because a) it tends to be the default at most of the places I shop and b) I figure that farmers who pump their cows full of artificial hormones to maximize their milk production probably aren't farmers who prioritize the quality of their products or the well-being and happiness of their cows. I really assumed that the FDA was being absolutely truthful when it said there was no detectable difference. Which actually, given what I know about the FDA and the power of the dairy industry, seems naive.

Of course, there's no reason to take the court's decision as gospel either, given what a contentious subject this is. But it's kind of sad that this kind of question has to be fought out in the courts.

Comments

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Hm. Wonder what other angling and lobbying is going on behind the scenes here? ISTR that the impetus behind the anti-labeling lobby came from Monsanto, who actually make the hormone in question and managed to spike a story on rBST that was about to make headlines in Fox News of all places.

Agreed, I also thought that rBST was probably worse for the cows than for the humans, but thanks to Monsanto's stonewalling attitudes, we don't know for sure whether or not that's the case. (NY State, for the record, still manages to have milk producers who sell milk labeled as rBST-free, and I've not seen a milk-carton *not* labeled as such around my neighborhood.)

[keyan-bowes.livejournal.com]

The whole labeling laws thing leaves me baffled. I read another article recently that suggested it could be (or could become) illegal to mark foods as GMO-free, on the grounds that that implies there's something wrong with GMOs. During the concerns with mad-cow disease, apparently no one was allowed to label their beef as disease-free because it would somehow imply that others weren't...

[dsmoen.livejournal.com]

I buy Straus milk, which is organic, rBST-free, and pasteurized but not homogenized.

It tastes like the milk of my youth, not the nasty stuff we get now. Since I go through a half gallon every 2-3 days, that's important.