Bovine Growth Hormone
May 20th, 2007I am blessed. By my house, we have six supermarkets that carry milk free from rBGH (recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone). Both Safeway’s and Trader Joe’s milk is 100% free from rBGH, as are Whole Foods and stores that carry certified Organic milk. Even Target has it, but the one by our house sells two milk products, one that may or may not have it, and one that is stamped that it doesn’t have it.
What is rBGH, you may ask? The Monsanto Corporation invented an artificial type of Bovine Growth Hormone that they market to farmers as POSILAC®. The drug successfully increases milk production by 10%. Sounds good, right? 10% more milk = more profits. The thing is, they have to include a stamp on their product that there’s a side effect - an increase in clinical mastisis for the cows. In addition, other studies have found a dramatic increase in lameness.
Now Monsanto wants you to believe there’s no health problems associated with you drinking the milk and getting health problems. The only thing they’ve found are some people are sensitive to milk that has it.
Like Mrs. Z for instance. She used to throw up when she drank milk, and she was under the impression she was allergic to milk. One day, I bought her Organic milk, and she not only held it down, she loved it. Years later, I bought her non-Organic milk that did not have rGBH. She held it down too, and now she enjoys a glass of milk daily plus milk with her morning cereal.
Is rGBH bad for you if you’re not sensitive to it? Who knows? POSILAC® is currently banned in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and every country in the EU. Weird, huh?
It’s legal in America though, where the Monsanto Corporation has a strong lobby. When Oakhurst Dairy put a label on their milk that stated they pledged their milk was free from Artificial Growth Hormone, Monsanto Corporation sued them. Coincidently, a few scientists felt pressured when they researched the affects of rGBH on humans. If you want to read more, read this:
Disturbing, huh?
Well, I’m not going to tell you what kind of milk to buy. All I’m saying is this family does not buy milk with rGBH. If you’d prefer not to as well, and if you live in America, buy your milk from Trader Joe’s, Safeway, Whole Foods, or buy it specifically labeled Organic. Also Chipotle Mexican Grill’s sour cream is free from rGBH. Other stores often sell it, but you have to look on the milk itself and look for a label that says specifically that it does not contain rGBH. If you know of any others, please let me know.
unfortunately none of the stores you list are in any kind of proximity to us. where i grew up there was a mom and pop dairy that was organic, and where i lived in PA before my current location. it’s not an easy thing to find locally without paying absurd amounts of money for it. but i would prefer to avoid the synthetic hormones.
Lime - I don’t know anything about the area you live in. We have different everything there. I think your drug store is CVS. We don’t have those here.
Hopefully someone will mention some stores back east that carry milk without it. If you look closely on the labels, some mention that it’s free of rGBH.
Yeah, Organic milk here is ridiculous as well. It’s about $6.50 a gallon. I could get 2 gallons of milk without rGBH for $4.99 at Safeway out in California.
Zombie,
I know this is not in reference to your article, but here are some more phone numbers for you.
US Congressional Switchboard Toll-free Numbers
1-866-340-9281
1-877-762-8762
1-866-808-0065
1-866-220-0044
White House Phone: 202-456-1111
Tony Snow: 202-456-2673
Boxer, Barbara- (D - CA) (202) 224-3553
Feinstein, Dianne- (D - CA) (202) 224-3841
Wally Herger
Chico (530) 893-8363
Washington D.C. (202) 225-3076
Redding (530) 223-5898
I have them all on speed dial on my cell phone. Use them almost daily lately.
Thanks Neal.
We moved to Lafayette recently. I now have Ellen Tausher. I have no idea if she’s any good or not, but I’ll email her tonight and call her this week.
Wally Herger was pretty slow at getting back to me. He only replied to about half my emails/letters.
I wonder what buffalo milk would be like…
No idea. Also have no idea how safe buffalo cows are to milk. If they’re like buffalo bulls, I’d rather pay someone else to get the milk.
Wow. Hubby is lactose Intollerant. I wonder if this is his problem instead but we cant afford 6.50 for milk right now. We have a few organic stores here in town. But I have never been in one.
We don’t have organic or hormone free milk here.
That’s one of the reasons we don’t consume much milk. We mostly have milk for cereal and for certain recipes. We have been known to use soy milk though.
I’m not gonna tell people what kind of milk to buy, either, because I don’t know how to make “soy” subliminal.
Tweety - That’s a shame about your husband. I love milk, and have a milkshake almost every day. I have a ridiculously high metabolism rate so I have to actually consume 2500+ calories a day or else I’ll disappear in skinniness.
Tshsmom and SME - I prefer Rice Dream to soy. No offense, just don’t like the taste of soy milk. I actually like the taste of milk.
For the same reason, we do not eat much beef, and we don’t let our son eat any. We only give him clean milk or soy. There are way too many things allowed into our food that are bad for us. I’m glad you posted on this1
I dont care for milk but my rule with the girls is at least one glass of milk a day and usually that is in there cereal unless its a weekend when I make breakfast for all of us. That is the only time I have time to get up and make a decent breakfast. Other wise we during the week we are scrambling for cereal or breakfast bars on his way out the door and such. J does have special milk from the store we buy for him. But its to expensive for us to make shakes out of. Its called Lactose Free or somethign like from Deans if you ever see it. It only comes in the half gallon. We pay about 3.49 for it. But it lasts longer than real milk for some reason. I have no idea why. Usually milk will last about two weeks. This lasts about three or so. Its just plain weird.
Wow, this is all news to me! Although I don’t drink milk regularly I will look for the “No rGBH” label now though. Thanks for the heads-up!
United - There is organic beef out there, and there’s also buffalo. I did a post previously about buffalo steaks. The thing is, both are very expensive.
Tweety - Yeah, I’ve seen that milk. It’s even more expensive out here. I think that milk might be ultra-pasteurized. That’s why it lasts so long.
Bsoholic - Sure. I can’t tell the difference in the taste.
It always continues to amaze me at how short sited we humans are. We continue to put profits before pretty much everything on our planet including ourselves.
We see the way artifical hormones and additives effect other animals and yet..we pretend as though we are immune because there is no clinical research proving other wise. Or maybe its because we are so completely arrogant that we feel we are above worring about what might happen to us 10 years down the road. Or for that matter what happens to the children or grandchildren that follow in our footsteps.
Rice Dream’s pretty good too. I have that from time to time. A few years ago I found out there’s a rabid anti-milk movement afoot, thanks to all the drugs the cows are given. I wouldn’t go so far as to call milk “the deadliest poison” like one guy does, but it’s definitely not healthy in its most commonly available form.