Know Your Milk

What is rBGH?

I'm swiping this definition entirely from Ben & Jerry's, which produced a small pamphlet explaining its thoughts on a “synthetic, chemically-intensive, factory-produced food supply.” I love that they call out Monsanto and can't wait for the oncoming transnat war, as imagined by Kim Stanley Robinson, that will end capitalism, democracy, and civilization as we know it. Right now I'm hoping it's a no-holds-barred bout between Exxon-Mobil in one corner and an alliance of ConAgra and Archer Daniels Midland in the other.

Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone is a genetically engineered copy of a naturally occurring hormone produced by cows. The naturally occurring hormone regulates the amount of milk a cow can produce; the genetically engineered copy of the hormone is used specifically to boost those amounts.

rBGH is manufactured by Monsanto Company, which sells the drug to dairy farmers under the name POSILAC (though it's more commonly referred to as BGH, rBGH, BST or rBST); farmers inject rBGH/POSILAC into cows for the purpose of increasing the cows' milk production.

If you read the label information on POSILAC, you'll see th manufacturer indicates that injections of the drug may cause a wide variety of serious healthy problems in cows. Some studies report a 79% increase in mastitis (infection of the udder) resulting in greater need for antibiotics, reduced pregnancy rates, cystic ovaries and uterine disorders, digestive disorders and lacerations, enlargements and calluses of the knee. As to milk's nutritional content, some studies have shown that the use of rBGH increases the time during which cows give milk with decreased protein.

The use of rBGH to treat dairy cows is prohibited in Canada and the European Union.

For Ben & Jerry's, rBGH solves “a problem that never existed.” Besides the health of the cows, their biggest concern is that the FDA “does not require that food products be labeled when they contain milk from treated cows” because that agency sees no qualitative difference, at least for the health of consumers, between normal milk and synthetic rBGH milk. And since there are also no “uniform state labeling standards,” shoppers often purchase and drink milk from rBGH-treated cows without knowing it.

Ben & Jerry's duly notes that the Vermont Public Interest Research Group (www.vpirg.org) helped compile this information. I owe Claire thanks for passing it along.