Supermarket chain causes removal of hormone milk from Florida

[Sarah Ibarruri]

http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/237030.html


Our FDA, of course, does nothing. Why should they? This administration gave former CEOs of pharma companies and hormone companies jobs in the FDA.

Our large supermarket chain in Florida did GOOD tho!

Please write them if you're from Florida (and even if you're not, as this might start the ball rolling in other states!!):

http://www.publix.com/contact/SendUsAMessage.do

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. One milk is indistinguishable from the other.

The milk from cows treated with hormones does not have more hormones in the milk than milk from cows that have not been treated with hormones.

[kestrel91316]

2. Hormones "in" the milk is not the issue.

rBST is a problem because:

A)When you give it to cows it makes them MUCH more susceptible to mastitis, making it much more likely there will be antibiotic residues in the milk (as someone with a deadly allergy to at least one common livestock antibiotic, this disturbs me)

B) When you give it to cows and they suffer from mastitis, this is cruelty for increased corporate profit, which is immoral IMHO.

C) Use of rBST enriches Monsanto and no one else. With the increased incidence of mastitis, which costs $ to treat, and the lowered price of milk due to increased output, the farmer sure isn't ahead.

Milk from rBST-treated cows should be boycotted for these reasons. Whether or not there is a hormone exposure issue is beside the point.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. Well presumably the dairy farmers are making money too, Kestrel.

"Use of rBST enriches Monsanto and no one else."

So I'm not going to buy that bit.

[kestrel91316]

18. Dairy farms are not made more profitable by rBST. The farmers have

been hoodwinked. Milk subsidies make up for the shortfall, so they don't care.

Research paper from UConn:
http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~foltz/bst.pdf
"....the current combination of low milk prices and high feed costs have meant that on average rBST's costs are not paid back in the value of its productivity increase. Farmers who have adopted it or who are considering to adopting it, should make sure it actually improves their bottom line....."

[terip64]

3. Raw milk is amazing in taste and nutrition. There is no comparsion. n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. It's also amazing in its ability to spread disease.

[terip64]

13. I get my milk from one farmer. I know and trust him and don't trust the milk in the grocery store.

He relies on my business and I rely on him. Very simple and we all win. And I get real milk with all of the enzymes I need to help me digest the milk. I make my own butter and kefir and cheese. It is amazing.

[terip64]

14. By the way, these are cows that are not fed grain and the milk is cooled down right away and kept

cold until I get it. I prepare my own bottles and have complete confidence in the process.

[Horse with no Name]

7. I grew up on a dairy

and the milk hit our lines from the cow at 33 degrees.
The milk I buy in the store doesn't even come close to the flavor.
But, let me tell you how this is done.
All the milk is put into a central tank. So even if one farmer has clean milk, the second his milk is pooled with the farmer that has dirty milk--it is all contaminated.
Even back in the late 70's, getting clean milk was difficult.
When each farmer's tank is picked up, a sample is taken from that tank. If there is a contamination--the entire milk truck is dumped and the farmer with the contaminated milk has to pay for the entire truck of milk. My mom caught the milk driver taking multiple samples out of our tank--he was paid off by the farmers who had dirty milk. Unless there was a bad sample, the entire milk truck was not tested. There is no telling how many contaminated gallons of milk slipped through because $100 changed hands.

In the same vein, do you remember when they used to show entire trucks of milk being dumped on the ground? That was when we had an effective FDA.
Then think how long it has been since you have seen that. And think how much the cancer rates have risen.

[whathappened]

11. i work for a dairy farmer

and you are right on there , i was responceable for the first line of defence when the milk hit the holding tank , it was my job to not milk any banded cows and if i did it was my job to tell the farmer of my mistake so he could dump his tank of milk down the drain and not let it get into the pickup wagons and head to the milk plant , so most farmer take this as serious as feeding bad milk to there familys

[napi21]

9. Apparently there has NOT been any price impact since Safeway

did this in Feb.

No milk is free of BST. <36> However, several milk purchasers and resellers do not purchase milk produced with rBGH. As of February 2007, Safeway in the Northwestern United States stopped buying from dairy farmers that use rBGH. The two Safeway plants produce milk for all of Oregon, Southwest Washington, and parts of northern California. Safeway's plant in San Leandro, CA had already been rBGH-free for two years. Trader Joes supermarkets only sell rBST-free milk, be it organic or not. Their non-organic rBST-free milk is not more expensive than major supermarkets' milk. Another company going rBGH free is Chipotle Mexican Grill that has also announced it will only serve rBGH-free sour cream at its more than 530 restaurants.<37> Kroger Company has announced its intent to sell only milk produced without synthetic hormones by February 2008.<38>Publix Supermarket Consumer Relations department says "Publix milk has been rBST/rBGH free since May of this year <2007> and is readily available in all fat levels and sizes at your neighborhood Publix."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_somatotropin


I don't know anything about rBGH, but it has bothered me for a LONG TIME that so many of our foods are artificially alotered in some way. Make it grow bigger, faster, blight free, have less fat content, and all the other reasons that on their face seem to be valid reasons. My husband is a meat cutter for a major supermarket chain. He's worked in that position for years, and for a number of different businesses. Often I've asked him why meats just don't taste as good as they used to. He always tells me it's because of what they'r fed now and the different things that are done to the animals to make them less fatty, grow faster so they can gt to market quicker, etc.

I know all the authorities say these things are safe, but I still think there are effects on humans that either no one knows yet, or simply isn't saying anything.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

12. Hormones *are* detectable in the milk - article from Harvard

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/12.07/11-dairy.html

[PaulaFarrell]

21. It has more pus though

19% more in fact

[Sarah Ibarruri]

22. GROSS!!!!

[QC]

6. I LOVE PUBLIX!!! n/t

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. And one of our local milk producers allows hormone-free milk as an

alternative.

Unfortunately, my co-op stopped selling quart bottles from the dairy I liked, and I can't finish a half gallon before it goes bad.

[AlCzervik]

10. Doesn't all milk have naturally occurring hormones?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

16. Here you go.....

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/12.07/11-dairy.html

[terip64]

15. kick

[orleans]

17. that's great. monsanto had fox kill the bovine growth hormone story a few years ago

the two reporters had to rewrite their report over 70 times

(wish i could remember more of the details) it was horrible. of course, monsanto advertises on faux


--i buy organic valley brand
from what i can tell, it's good.

"Produced by family farmers in harmony with nature without antibiotics, synthetic hormones or pesticides. Our animals are raised humanely and given certified organic feed — never any animal by-products — and our pastures are certified organic
http://www.organicvalley.coop/products_recipes/products.html?cat=1

[AlecBGreen]

19. I buy organic milk

Horizon Whole Milk. Its twice as expensive but the quality is out of this world. It tastes like a completely different product. Even on a teachers budget I consider it money well spent.

[orleans]

20. we were buying horizon, but then learned that the cows aren't quite

as happy as they make them out to be (i think dean foods bought horizon--so it's become more along the line of factory farming/cows) so we switched to organic valley.

but when we changed from regular to horizon i remember thinking the milk tasted "cleaner" or clearer. we really did like it.

[RandiFan1290]

23. How much is it?

I just got back from Publix and they want $6.09 for a gal. of regular milk. I just stared laughing when I saw that price.

[AlecBGreen]

26. yeah, its quite expensive

Here in Virginia a half gallon is $3.50. I need to get my own cow...

[Canuckistanian]

24. rBST is BANNED in Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and most of the EU

Some scientific studies have indicated that rBST might be implicated in causing sterility, infertility, birth defects, cancer and immunological derangements in humans. In cows, it is thought to increase infections in cow udders, leading to more pus ending up in retail milk.

http://www.foodqualitynews.com/news/ng.asp?id=75494-monsanto-rbst-dairy-milk

I'm glad I live in Canada, where food safety is still taken seriously.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

25. Why am I not surprised