Protect Your Right to Know about Artificial Hormones in Milk
The biotechnology industry wants to take away our right to know when artificial hormones have been used to produce milk. Shouldn’t we have a choice to feed our kids safe food? You can take action today to protect truthful milk labels.
For over a decade, Stonyfield Farms, Ben & Jerry’s, Whole Foods and other companies that make and sell dairy products have been allowed under federal food safety rules to label their products so consumers can choose milk produced without the genetically engineered hormone rBGH (sometimes also called rBST).
These labels are an important food safety measure, since rBGH has never been adequately tested for safety and has been linked to health problems in animals and to a potential cancer risk in humans.
But the state of Kansas passed a bill last week that will make it difficult if not impossible for dairies to continue to provide easily identifiable rBGH-free dairy products.
Under the bill, any dairy that wishes to spotlight its use of rBGH-free milk will now also be required to note that “the FDA has found no significant differences” between natural milk and its genetically engineered franken-cousin.
That’s right: if you identify your safe, natural dairy product, Kansas also wants to require you to say, “But unnatural is just as good as natural.” Even though FDA’s own analysis found significant differences between natural milk and milk from rBGH-injected cows.
It would be difficult for most companies to make the drastic label changes called for by the law, effectively eliminating any rBGH labels and leaving consumers unable to choose safer dairy products.
The Kansas law, if it stands, could affect the entire nation, since national dairy providers will not create different labels for each state.
Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, who is President Obama’s nominee to head the Department of Health & Human Services (which oversees FDA), can veto this bill and protect consumers’ right to know about genetically engineered drugs in milk.
Please ask Governor Sebelius to veto this bill! Our friends at Center for Food Safety have an online letter to the Governor. Please take a few seconds and send this letter TODAY! It’ll do a body good.