Bowing to pressure from consumer advocates, Pennsylvania officials have dropped plans to bar farmers from revealing whether or not milk hails from hormone-enhanced cows. The state's agriculture department on Thursday issued new guidelines that allow dairies to label milk so that customers know if it was produced from cows pumped with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) also known as recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST).
The move comes less than two weeks before a February 1 ban was set to take effect that would have barred dairies in the Keystone State from slapping certain labels on milk products, including "from cows not treated with growth hormone rBST'' and "free of artificial growth hormones."
''This is a victory for free speech, free markets, sustainable farming and the consumer's right to know," Michael Hansen, a senior scientist with the Consumers Union (CU), said about the state's about-face. "Consumers increasingly want to know more about how their food is produced and, particularly, whether it is produced in a natural and sustainable manner. There is no justification for prohibiting information about rBGH use on a milk label.''
He added that the state should be applauded for "realizing that its initial regulation prohibiting such labeling was flawed and for reversing its position.''
Full Story: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=milk-industry-gag-order-on-artificial-hormones-lifted
Milk and Honey, er, Hormones
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Pennsylvania changes course and allows farmers to alert consumers that they do-or don't-ply their dairy cows with hormones
By Lisa Stein
Scientific American, January 18, 2008
Straight to the Source
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kparcell
Jan 20 2008, 01:56 AM
Congratulations to everyone who stood their ground, and applause goes to The Philadelphia Inquirer's editors for taking a principled stand where America was born.
Kevin Parcell
forever.net@mac.com
Ronnie Cummins
Jan 20 2008, 01:54 PM
The reason Monsanto is working so hard in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other states to deny consumers the right to know whether their food--in this case dairy products--has been genetically engineered or not is because they know full well, as does the USDA, that if consumers are given free choice through truthful labeling they will reject recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone and all other Frankenfoods.
T. Payne
Jan 20 2008, 09:04 PM
I moved to Pennsylvania a few years ago and I am horrified at how backwards this place is when it comes to eating habits, health and environmental issues. The idea that it would be okay to keep vital information from consumers concerning food is so Pennsylvania.
The main concerns are the meat and dairy industries, not the health of the residents. But then few people I've met here have real concern about the food they are eating. One woman I know said she didn't want to know what's in hotdogs because she wants to eat them without "issues".
The biggest attraction around here is The Farm Show - filled with dairy products, a ridiculously large butter sculture and cute animals that will be brutally slaughtered the next day.
Very entertaining.
The main concerns are the meat and dairy industries, not the health of the residents. But then few people I've met here have real concern about the food they are eating. One woman I know said she didn't want to know what's in hotdogs because she wants to eat them without "issues".
The biggest attraction around here is The Farm Show - filled with dairy products, a ridiculously large butter sculture and cute animals that will be brutally slaughtered the next day.
Very entertaining.
diana
Jan 20 2008, 11:53 PM
QUOTE (T. Payne @ Jan 20 2008, 09:04 PM) 
I moved to Pennsylvania a few years ago and I am horrified at how backwards this place is when it comes to eating habits, health and environmental issues. The idea that it would be okay to keep vital information from consumers concerning food is so Pennsylvania.
The main concerns are the meat and dairy industries, not the health of the residents. But then few people I've met here have real concern about the food they are eating. One woman I know said she didn't want to know what's in hotdogs because she wants to eat them without "issues".
The main concerns are the meat and dairy industries, not the health of the residents. But then few people I've met here have real concern about the food they are eating. One woman I know said she didn't want to know what's in hotdogs because she wants to eat them without "issues".
American complacency is incredibly frustrating, huh? It's not just Pennsylvania, and I know PA residents who are highly aware and great, thoughtful people. No, it's everywhere. And somehow we have to do all in our power to promote farmers' markets, the Buy Local movement, challenging and questioning businesses that buy Chinese and other slave-labor products, getting union members to look out for their own best interests, and so on. There is plenty to do, and too few of us working to do it. But it is cool that no one is alone. There are wonderful people here doing good in a variety of ways.
Mostly we have a government in cahoots with business, or in the pockets of business, really -- it's called corporatism, or fascism, depending on just who you're talking with. And we have to get our country back, re-institute democracy here, and stop US corporations from pillaging other nations under the guise of "free" marketeering, but really with unbounded freedoms to wreak havoc, kill and maim without consequence, and write mandatory purchasing of US-corporation products into those nations' very constitutions.
We're not gonna agree on what you might name the innate cruelty of farming; some 16 pages of thread have proven that we hold varied beliefs here, quite comfortably. Nor do many of us see butter as a bad food. But as to the cowardly approach of not wanting to know food truths because they might raise issues or discomforts? That gets you complete support. I understand it, I know the fear that keeps people hiding from reality, but it's time we begin to face our world as participating adults. IMO. --diana
ladycat
Jan 21 2008, 12:19 AM
QUOTE (T. Payne @ Jan 20 2008, 04:04 PM)
But then few people I've met here have real concern about the food they are eating. One woman I know said she didn't want to know what's in hotdogs because she wants to eat them without "issues".
That's how it is around here. And if you try to educate people, they don't want to hear it!!
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