Unhappy Cows: The Hormones in Milk Controversy
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Monsanto are a happy company in the USA. They sell genetically modified seeds for crops grown in the US (banned in most other western countries) and are allowed to sell Bovine Growth Hormone, rBGH, for use in dairy cows (banned in most other western countries).
Cows injected with rBGH produce 10-25% more milk, making farmers very happy, considering the recent high prices they can sell milk for. The cows, however, are less happy. rBGH makes cows more likely to have foot problems and lameness, fertility problems, reactions at the injections site, and more likely to get mastitis. (Nursing moms, did you ever get mastitis? it’s AGONY.)
And what about consumers? By-products of rBGH do pass into milk. Heath Canada studies have concluded that rBGH cannot “biologically plausibly” affect humans, and Monsanto claims that pasteurization render it harmless to humans, but feeding growth hormones to adult animals has been shown to increase the risk of some cancers in animal studies. The drug is banned for use in Canadian cattle on animal welfare grounds.
Currently, milk from cows not injected with rBGH is labeled as such, so consumers can make a choice. Monsanto is hoping to change that though. A supposedly independent group of farmers called Afact is lobbying for changes in the law which will prevent labeling of rBGH-free milk as such. Turns out that Afact was organized by Monsanto. So far they haven’t succeeded. And in Pennsylvania, lawmakers actually tightened the regulations on milk labeling to make it more accurate as to whether hormones had been used.
rBGH-free milk is sold everywhere from Walmart to health food stores, so it’s available for almost every consumer for about the same price as rBGH milk. I’ve just been to SuperTarget: A half-gallon of Target brand milk (may contain rBGH) is $2.19, Kemp’s brand milk (no rBGH) is $2.39.
It’s an easy decision for me to choose which one to buy for my family, especially considering how much milk my toddler drinks.
And what about baby formula? The main ingredient of formula is milk. Enfamil, Good Start and Similac’s websites are devoid of any information about rBGH.
A Similac customer representative read me a statement that said Similac “have no control” over whether the milk they use in their formula has rBGH in it. She also told me “there are no traces of rBGH in formula” because it is inactivated in the formula making process. She also said “rBGH is turned into inactive fragments in the digestive tract”.
Enfamil and Nestle Good Start emailed me lengthy statements saying much the same thing - cows are injected with rBGH, we might be using some of their milk, but no rBGH ends up in our formula.
No studies have shown any risk to humans from drinking rBGH milk. Although, to be fair, not many studies have been done, and none on a large scale, so it’s probably not wise to claim it’s totally safe just yet.There’s other food issues that are proven to be harmful - like trans fats, or mercury in fish, pesticides in fruit and vegetables, and lead in our water, that’s it’s much more important to be aware of. But since I can avoid rBGH milk cheaply and easily, for my family’s sake and for the welfare of dairy cows, I’m certainly going to.
Tags: cows milk, farming, grocery shopping, monsanto, politics, rBGH, rBST
Science-mom says...
Use of rBGH is banned in the EU due to animal welfare issues. Milk is more expensive here compared to milk in the US but I think it`s money well-spent. A related post on rBGH:
http://blogs.babiesonline.com/2008/01/27/somethings-wrong-with-american-milk-and-thats-rbgh/
diary farmer mom says...
As a mom, I understand your concerns. I was only able to have one child so I was super protective! But I didn’t hesitate using milk that was produced from cows who had been injected with rbST. If you have been drinking milk over the past 15 years and it wasn’t organic, you have been consuming milk produced with the help of rbST. You have not been consuming rbST as the hormone remains in the cow where her body uses it to make her body more efficient.
As far as being cruel to the animals, you need to understand something about milk cows. These very large magnificent creatures are actually VERY VERY sensitive. The slightest discomfort in their housing, change in feed, even change in weather, affects how much milk they produce. So you can see we as farmers work very hard to keep our animals comfortable and happy, because if we don’t, they don’t produce milk and we go out of business. You can’t abuse a dairy cow and stay in business!
There is no test available that can determine whether the milk you are buying was produced with the use of rbST or not. So I think that should tell you that the same hormones in the same quantities are in both kinds of milk. Milk is Milk.
The use of rbST actually makes a smaller carbon print on the environment than milk produced without it. A farmer can produce more milk with less feed, fossil fuel, electricity, water, and manure.
I am also a member of AFACT (American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology). Yes Monsanto is helping us, but only because WE asked THEM to help us win the right to continue using their product. AFACT is fighting for more than just the right to use rbST, but it just happens to be the larger fight right now.
I am surprised at the small price difference you found at your store. All of the stores I have looked at milk has a 25%-50% difference. Which by the way, very very little of this increase in cost is being returned to the farmer who has incurred a lot of extra expense in producing this milk. The money is staying with the grocery stores and the processors who have no extra expenses. Us farmers have not been given a choice in this matter. We have been told to stop using rbST or no one will buy your milk. So much for choices!
The processors and retailers are counting on two things. 1-That the consumers don’t know what is really going on at the dairy farm and 2-When you scare people over food you can easily separate them from their money. So several of us farmers are trying to let as many consumers as we can know what is going on so you won’t be needlessly scared out of your money.
Thanks for listening!
Dawn Allcot says...
Interesting post! Do you know of any formulas that are decidedly not made with rBGH milk? Maybe organic brands? Are there any? Thanks in advance for any info you may have.
I’m going to look into the milk I buy more carefully, too. My husband and I go through about 2 gallons a week lately.
Dawn
brit says...
Organic milk, and organic formula (made from organic milk) are rBGH free. For milk to be labeled as “organic” then no artificial hormones like rBGH can be used.