Daft Musings

by Carolyn Bickford

Menu
  • Seven Years Gone and A Pandemic In Between (Tales of an ex-Californian in Tennessee)
  • Share Your Craziest COVID Memories Here
  • The COVID Masks
  • Old Journalistic Ethics vs. Social Media Screeds (updated below)
  • About Me
  • Privacy Policy
Menu

This Milk from Cows Not Treated with rBST

Posted on April 10, 2007 by cjbickford

Most of the milk I buy has a small label saying that it comes from cows not treated with rBST (recombinant bovine growth hormone.) Ironically, the not-made-with-rBST costs the same, sometimes even less, than its less holistic counterpart. But getting more milk out of cows with chemical stimulation, it seems, isn’t more profitable than getting it out of them without it.

But perhaps I should backtrack for a moment and tell you the story of rBST and dairy cows. In the early 1990s, the FDA approved its use as a tool for dairies to increase their milk production. The FDA studies didn’t see any differences in the milk from cows with rBST and those without, so the FDA ruled that milk from rBST-treated cows did not have to be labelled as anything unique.

The organic food industry, which didn’t cotton to rBST, responded by creating labels for its dairy products saying “from cows not treated with rBST.” I bought the regular milk, which didn’t have those labels, since I didn’t want to pay the premium price organic foods command.

But then, reports of problems with the hormone started trickling out. It wasn’t that rBST-produced milk was bad for humans, but that it was bad for the cows. The cows were getting sick by producing so much milk day after day. The farmers, who’d had to pay for the rBST now had to pay even more for antibiotics. The veterinarian bills and cow down time swallowed up the profits of additional milk production.

For a brief moment in time, organic milk was actually cheaper than the store brand. Shortly afterwards, more milk brands–not organic ones–started carrying the little labels announcing that their milk, too, came from cows not treated with rBST. Smart & Final milk comes from non-treated cows; Trader Joe’s milk does, too. A few months ago, Safeway–or at least this region’s Safeway–stopped the use of rBST in its own dairy farms. The Organic Consumers Association attributed it to a consumer campaign, but I think economics played a bigger role in the decision than a few postcards from particularly motivated Oregonians.

I wonder if farmers will stop using rBST altogether, on their own, for economic reasons, and make the little labels ubiquitous and/or irrelevant in the near future.

Category: Environmentalist Ramblings

1 thought on “This Milk from Cows Not Treated with rBST”

  1. Lynne Eldridge M.D. says:
    April 10, 2007 at 4:05 pm

    Thank you for your wonderful post about rBST treated milk. From researching this, I understand the amount of research you needed to do to post this blog! Great work! It is true that BST is not good for cows. This is the reason, in fact, that Germany does not allow BST. German veterinarians agree not to intentionally do anything that could inflict harm upon animals. Since BST makes cows ill, they deemed its use unethical.

    When it comes to my family, I chose a simple, non-scientific approach to my decision to avoid milk from cows treated with BST. The use of BST to increase milk production in cows was never approved in the European Union countries or Canada, and has been banned in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Even though the FDA feels it is ok for us, I do not want my children to have a product all of these other countries feel is unacceptable! Thanks!

    Lynne Eldridge M.D.

    Co-Author, “Avoiding Cancer One Day At A Time: Practical Advice for Preventing Cancer”

    http://www.avoidcancernow.com

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Seven Years Gone and A Pandemic In Between (Tales of an ex-Californian in Tennessee)
  • Perspectives on Theranos 2: Some Good Ideas
  • Perspectives on Theranos: Silicon Valley Kool-Aid Culture
  • COVID Vaccines in 100 Days or Less
  • The Fun of Unscientific Social Distancing Markers

Recent Comments

  • George Haberberger on Concern Trolling Control Freaks
  • Roll With It: Diving into 2021 – Daft Musings on Hippie Hiking Adventures in TN
  • cjbickford on Performers and Audiences in the Pandemic Looking Glass
  • George Haberberger on Performers and Audiences in the Pandemic Looking Glass
  • George Haberberger on Destroying People and Freedom with the Power of the Perpetually Offended

Archives

  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • November 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • December 2020
  • May 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • August 2019
  • February 2019
  • September 2018
  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • August 2017
  • February 2017
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • February 2016
  • October 2015
  • June 2015
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007

Categories

  • art & fashion
  • Cult of Personality
  • Daft Musings
  • Death
  • Death to COVID
  • Education
  • Environmentalist Ramblings
  • Germany
  • Holiday Ideas
  • How Covid Changed Us
  • Idiot Thieves
  • Local Lore
  • music
  • Nashville
  • Our Amazing Cross-Country Road Trip
  • Out & About
  • Parking It
  • Parties
  • Pointless Complaining about Gas Prices
  • Religion
  • San Diego Comic Con
  • Southwest Tour 2014
  • Taxes Suck
  • The Next Great American Band
  • Travelling
  • Uncategorized
  • Yukky Medical Stories

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
© 2025 Daft Musings | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme