Pennsylvania Says Information is the Enemy
If you're one of the thousands of consumers who likes to know what chemicals go into your food, Pennsylvania has a big screw you for ya:
The law is likely going to spread (New Jersey and Ohio are next) as Monsanto, the country's largest producer of agro-chemicals used on our nation's food supply, lobbies state governments to increase the ban. Their logic? Letting customers know what's not in our milk "implies that competitors' milk is not safe."
There is something excruciatingly perverse about this ruling, and it's not just that agribusiness and government are trying to keep information from consumers. What's really perverse is that dairies are labeling their milk "rBST free" because consumers want them to; it adds value to the product. Monsanto recognizes this, and instead of adapting their business paradigm to meet this dramatic shift in consumer demand, they are forcing consumers to conform to their standards. That's not really how the free market is supposed to work, though, is it?
Update [11.28.07]: "...early last week Gov. Ed Rendell's office initiated a review of the decision...Chuck Ardo, press secretary for Mr. Rendell, said the governor's office heard complaints from elected representatives of rural districts and agriculture lobbyists, prompting the review." [full story via The Ethicurian]
Update [01.17.08]: The ban's been reversed! [References via The Ethicurian]
Further reading:
Full story from STLtoday.com
Bovine growth hormone information from the Organic Consumers' Association
List of rBST free dairy producers
"Effective Jan. 1, dairies selling milk in Pennsylvania, the nation's fifth-largest dairy state, will be banned from advertising on milk containers that their product comes from cows that have never been treated with rBST, or recombinant bovine somatotropin."That's right—dairies are no longer allowed to let their customers know that they don't give rBST to their cows. The result is that customers will have no way of knowing which dairy products they buy are hormone free (unless they buy certified organics).
The law is likely going to spread (New Jersey and Ohio are next) as Monsanto, the country's largest producer of agro-chemicals used on our nation's food supply, lobbies state governments to increase the ban. Their logic? Letting customers know what's not in our milk "implies that competitors' milk is not safe."
There is something excruciatingly perverse about this ruling, and it's not just that agribusiness and government are trying to keep information from consumers. What's really perverse is that dairies are labeling their milk "rBST free" because consumers want them to; it adds value to the product. Monsanto recognizes this, and instead of adapting their business paradigm to meet this dramatic shift in consumer demand, they are forcing consumers to conform to their standards. That's not really how the free market is supposed to work, though, is it?
Update [11.28.07]: "...early last week Gov. Ed Rendell's office initiated a review of the decision...Chuck Ardo, press secretary for Mr. Rendell, said the governor's office heard complaints from elected representatives of rural districts and agriculture lobbyists, prompting the review." [full story via The Ethicurian]
Update [01.17.08]: The ban's been reversed! [References via The Ethicurian]
Further reading:
Full story from STLtoday.com
Bovine growth hormone information from the Organic Consumers' Association
List of rBST free dairy producers
Labels: business, censorship, foodbev, free_speech, politics
10 Comments:
WOW!
that is just ridiculous! the system really doesn't work, unless you have deep pockets i suppose.
sheesh! at least there is the internet, so people who want to, can find the dairies that don't use the hormones. but the uniformed consumer is SOL i guess.
Wow. There's a new twist on marketing. Holy cow. Scary.
You know, this move has really hit a nerve with me more than most of the horrors perpetrated on the unsuspecting American public. There is something so insidious about private business dictating what citizens can and can't know vis their government.
Makes me very angry, and very sad. That said, it also makes me want to fight!
Quote
"The result is that customers will have no way of knowing which dairy products they buy are hormone free."
This is pure BS ... there is no such thing as homone-free milk. All milk contains hormones, including BST. The issue is whether or not the cow has received some BST in addition to what the cow produces naturally. Food Nazis make rBST sound scary, but the only real issue is taht the farmers have to work a little harder to keep the cow's teats clean.
Now, if you want to get into the issue of antibiotics administered to cows, that is something that could be problematic (too many antibiotics in all kinds of foods, and more importantly, over prescribed by doctors, lead to resistant bacteria).
Ok, I'll rephrase: The result is that customers will have no way of knowing which dairy products they buy are treated with the Monsanto-manufactured genetically engineered variant of the natural growth hormone produced by cows.
The point is a simple one: regardless of your personal feelings about the safety of genetically modified materials being added to our food supply, as a consumer, I have a right to know what I'm buying (so I can then choose not to buy it).
—JJ
Well has a consumer I think that they should disclose such information on the labels. Is bad enought that so much is hidden from us consumers and for something like rBGH that even makes the cow sick, not to be on the label of some milk containers to maintain the confidence of which consumers? Well the buck stops here they can count me out, I will give up milk for orange juice or tofu hoping of course that their is no rBGH added to them too. What is this world coming too.
I got a little rile up on my previous post I mispelled the
abbreviation of rBST and I erroneously wrote rBGH,
which in either case does not diminish the harmful effects of this product that is in some of our milk containers. God help us.
Maybe they can claim it's some kind of kosher milk.
Ugh, that is just disgusting. I will have to let my father in law know about it (he lives in PA and is very health conscious). Until then, we can always drink rice milk or hemp milk (my personal favorite). Monsanto has got to be one of the most horrendous corporations of all times. They are the creators of Agent Orange, after all.
This is just one reason I am moving to Mendocino county, CA: they were the first (and only so far, I think) county in the US to ban GMOs completely from their county. No Monsanto in Mendo! Yay!
This is for "anonymous" the know it all troll who thinks consumer concerns over rBGH and rBST are "BS". Cows injected with Monsanto's artificial hormone get udder infections, which results in pus in the milk, PUS, that nasty dead white cell stuff that forms in infected tissue. Conventional milk is full of pus. The constant udder infections are why the cows have to be given antibiotics on a regular schedule. I'd rather go hungry than consume conventional dairy products. And even if the rBST can't be found in the milk of injected cows, it causes an increase in the level of a growth hormone in the milk, which can be detected by testing, and which is of concern to diabetics, potential diabetics and, in my opinion, everyone. Are you really in favor of big government dictating what consumers can and can't know about what they buy?
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