Monday, January 21, 2008

Growth hormone free milk labels adopted by Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has reached a compromise on labelling milk free from the artificial growth hormone rBST.

The state's Department of Agriculture had previously said it would not allow milk companies to say products are free from recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST).

Now companies will be able to say its milk has been made from cows which have not been treated with rBST, but they will also have to carry the label "No significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST-treated cows."

BST or bovine somatotropin is a naturally occurring protein hormone in the pituitary gland of cattle. Monsanto's synthetic version is injected into a cow to increase milk production.

The hormone, which Monsanto terms a "supplement", is widely used around the US. According to the firm's estimates, about one third of the nation's dairy cattle are given rBST. However, the practice is banned in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and most of the EU.

Steve - now we have to work on getting cloned, irradiated, virally adulterated foods labeled!

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