A generation ago, running to the store for a gallon of milk was a no-brainer. You simply picked up a bottle of milk and went on your merry way.

These days, consumers have a dizzying array of choices – lactose-free or skim-rich, unflavored or flavored, organic or conventional, soy milk or hormone-free milk.

That last one, labeled with claims that might read “rBST-free” or “no growth hormones,” has recently aroused a new wave of controversy as Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, Indiana and several other states are trying to ban or restrict these so-called absence labels from milk cartons altogether.

While New York has no such legislation in the works, the Department of Agriculture & Markets’ Division of Milk Control and Dairy Services is closely following what is happening elsewhere and is “actively working” on more specific labeling guidelines for all dairy products, says agriculture department spokeswoman Jessica Chittenden.

Many proponents of rBST say current labeling practices can mislead consumers into believing that milk made with the synthetic hormone, which typically costs less, is inferior. Farmers who prefer rBST complain that they aren’t getting a fair price for their milk compared with rBST-free and organic, or complain they are being forced to quit using it, and with it, the profits from higher production.

Consumer activists and opponents who question the safety of rBST say that consumers have a right to choose milk without added rBST, and labeling is the only way they can make that choice.

“Clearly there are people who care passionately on (all) sides of the argument,” says Mark Stephenson, a senior extension associate at the Cornell Program on Dairy Markets & Policy.

Marketed by Monsanto as Posilac, rBST (which stands for recombinant bovine somatotropin) was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1993. (It is also known by its other acronym, rBGH, or recombinant bovine growth hormone). BST occurs naturally in cows, but the synthetic version boosts milk output by an average of 10 percent.

The FDA asserts that milk made from rBST-injected cows is safe for humans and has the same nutritional composition and wholesomeness as untreated conventional or organic milk (which by law cannot be treated with rBST).

 

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