Moo Cow Fuck Milk

So, when I was up in Seattle, we sat down to have breakfast on Saturday morning, with a half gallon container of (full-fat--yuuum) milk. There was a banner across the front of the carton loudly proclaiming that this carton of Dairy Glen milk was rBGH-free. That is awesome--until now, the only milk I've seen that is rBGH-free is organic--and pricey.

rBGH is a growth hormone used to increase milk production in cows. Along with the use of it, has been an increase in udder infections, and an increased use of antibiotics, and thus, concerns of increased cancer risk for humans. Many environmental groups and also Physicians for Social Responsibility have been trying to educate the dairy and retail industries about the risk potential for years.

At one point during breakfast, the back of the carton was facing me and I noticed along side the nutritional information, there was a curious statement--and I'm paraphrasing--that the claims that milk without rBGH are healthier for you have not been proven.

Um, okay. I stopped a minute and processed the whole thing. What an odd statement on a carton of milk. And it made me wonder why milk containing rBGH does not also have a statement explaining to consumers that the hormone has not been proven safe by the FDA. Alas, that's the power of the dairy and farming lobbies in our country.

In doing a bit more research on the topic, I found a news article stating that Safeway stores in the Pacific Northwest are now making all of their Lucerne brand milk rBGH-free. I've written to Safeway's corporate office to ask when Colorado stores will get the same. If you want to write to Safeway, all of their corporate contact information is here. I plan to also write to King Soopers (our local Kroger store), too. It's only when we, as consumers, tell them what we want, that we will get it. If we don't tell them, they don't know.