Good news re: rbGH

[marmar]

Big Victory Against rbGH!
by: Jill Richardson

Thu Sep 30, 2010 at 18:32:09 PM PDT


Remember way back when when several states tried to ban "rbGH-free" claims on dairy? This was a few years ago now. Monsanto, who owned rbGH at the time, helped found a group of rbGH-loving dairy farmers called AFACT. AFACT then pushed to ban any label claims telling consumers which milk came from cows that had not been treated with rbGH. Naturally, that sparked tons of consumer outrage, and ultimately AFACT was unsuccessful in most states where they tried this.

Save for Ohio. Ohio was the one last state where it looked like they might win. Ultimately the fight went to the courts. Today brought BIG news of a court decision in Ohio. The less significant news out of the court is that milk in Ohio can still say "rbGH-free" but it must also contain an FDA disclaimer saying "he FDA has determined that no significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rbST-supplemented and non-rbST-supplemented cows."

Now, here's the BIG news. The court challenged the FDA's finding that there is "no measurable compositional difference" between milk from rbGH-treated cows and milk from untreated cows. According to those who have worked on this issue for nearly two decades now (maybe more), the FDA's claim that there was no compositional difference between milk from rbGH-treated and untreated cows was THE MAJOR roadblock to any good regulation. And the court finally struck it down, citing three reasons why the milk differs: 1. Increased levels of the hormone IGF-1, 2. A period of milk with lower nutritional quality during each lactation, and 3. Increased somatic cell counts (i.e. more pus in the milk). ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.lavidalocavore.org/diary/4056/big-victory-against-rbgh

[louis-t]

1. Big busines is trying to replace real food with fake, poisoned food.

They're doing the same thing with GM corn and corn syrup. Big PR blitz aimed at convincing consumers and the courts that "HFCS is the 'same' as sugar", GM crops should not be labeled as such because they are "virtually the same" as real crops.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. This country..and much of the world has come to the point where ALL that matters is the bottom line

That has been shown over and over and over...every time there is a food recall, a drug recall, a toy recall, an explosion or cave-in at some facility..every time there is a rash of birth defects or "unexplained" cancer occurrences in a small local area where run off from some big corporate manufacturer that was left to do as they pleased. Need I mention Bhopal and Three Mile Island..and Love Canal...etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc.....

[damntexdem]

3. Even were there no difference, the consumer would still have the right to know and make choices.

That there apparently ARE differences only makes the crime against the consumer worse, albeit much worse.