Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Dairymen pressured to scrap hormones
http://www.newsdaily.com/TopNews/UPI-1-20071216-16082500-bc-us-milk.xml

PITTSBURGH, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. dairy farmers increasingly are being
facing market pressures not to use hormones to increase their herds' milk
production.

Recombinant bovine somatotropin has been used to boost milk production
since entering the market in 1994.

At the time, it was considered safe and non-controversial. Now, however,
the market for rbST-produced milk is shrinking, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
reported Sunday.

Kroger, a grocery chain with headquarters in Cincinnati, was among the
first to stop selling milk from cows treated with hormones, and several
more have followed, including Dean Foods, the largest U.S. dairy
distributor.

Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff announced in October that
dairy products cannot contain so-called "absence labeling," which includes
claims the milk comes from cows not treated with hormones.

The decision, currently on hold, would essentially eliminate rbST-free
producers' advantage in the marketplace, but consumer groups objected to
not being able to know how their milk was being produced, the newspaper
reported.

"Whether or not people believe the product is any different, consumers
ought to be able to support a system of agriculture with their food
dollars," said Leslie Zuck, executive director of Pennsylvania Certified
Organic.

"They want a natural way of producing food more in harmony with the
environment."