PA Bars Hormone-Free Label on Milk

November 14th, 2007, posted by Stanley

Pennsylvania is stopping dairies from stamping milk containers with hormone-free labels in a precedent-setting decision being closely watched by the industry.

Synthetic hormones have been used to improve milk production in cows for more than a decade. The chemical has not been detected in milk, so there is no way to test for its use, but a growing number of retailers have been selling and promoting hormone-free products in response to consumer demand.

State Agriculture Secretary Dennis C. Wolff said advertising one brand of milk as free from artificial hormones implies that competitors’ milk is not safe, and it often comes with what he said is an unjustified higher price.

“It’s kind of like a nuclear arms race,” Wolff said. “One dairy does it and the next tries to outdo them. It’s absolutely crazy.”

Filed under:

Miscellany

This is bad and suspicious

On November 14th, 2007 Anonymous said:

So an unelected official convenes an advisory panel, and they conclude, with no supporting evidence, that these milk labels are confusing and misleading and outlaw them? This is garbage. I want to know what happens to the cows from which I get my milk. There is a reason Canada and Europe have banned this product, because there are data to suggest it might not be safe.

And there’s a reason the FDA has not looked at it since it approved rgBH in 1993 — because it would have to possibly admit that the data on which it initially approved it were weak and that it’s been ignoring a potentially serious problem for 14 freaking years!

I’m pissed and I’m going to get some answers.