If Monsanto has its way, you won’t know what’s in your milk. The food-tech leader is introducing bills to U.S. states that would ban milk labels claiming products are “growth hormone-free.” But Monsanto’s efforts aren’t going unnoticed.
Digital Journal — Agribusiness giant Monsanto is doing everything in its power to keep the contents of milk a secret. Recently, Monsanto led an effort to get rid of milk labels reading “growth hormone-free” in Kansas. The company wants the state’s Senate to pass a bill that would ban any kind of labeling because, they claim, growth hormones can’t be found in lab tests.
Monsanto is teaming up with AFACT, American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology, which is led by several dairy farmers. AFACT also shares the same public relations firm as Monsanto. They want to make it illegal to label food, a Kansas City Star reporter says, “as having a compositional claim that cannot be confirmed through laboratory analysis or to state a compositional or production-related claim that is supported solely by sworn statements, affidavits, or testimonials.”
Essentially, this claim says lab tests can’t find growth hormones in milk, so dairy farmers who steer clear of the controversial drug are not even allowed to represent their milk as hormone-free.
Senate Bill 595 is before the Senate Agriculture Committee, and state Sen. Roger Pine, R-Lawrence, said he needs to study the bill more extensively. He told the Lawrence Journal World & News:
I’m certainly not opposed to the public having the right to know. That’s just part of the freedom we have in this country, and I don’t want to lose that regardless of what side you are on this issue.
Monsanto certainly doesn’t want consumers to know much about recombinant bovine growth hormone (rbGH), which help cows produce more milk at the expense of their health. It’s been widely reported that rbGH can increase toxicity in cows and cancer risk in humans.
In order to spin the dangers away from the public eye, Monsanto has introduced similar bills in several other states, including Indiana, Ohio, Utah and Pennsylvania. Activist groups are reacting strongly to Monsanto’s anti-labelling efforts — Patty Lovera of Food and Water Watch told Utah’s Desert Morning News that corporate interference in food labeling “is a restriction on commercial speech and unconstitutional.”
Monsanto is scared. It’s obvious in the way the company wants to steer consumer focus away from rbGH, and it’s clear in how it wants to muscle its way into the legislative process. Like any corporation worried about its bottom line, Monsanto knows that “rbGH-free” milk labels could appeal to health-conscious consumers. And is that so wrong? Unfortunately, Monsanto is looking after itself rather than the public, but let’s hope state Senates don’t fall for the agribusiness’s wily tricks.
This is why we need to outlaw campaign contributions from corporations, which is what the Founding Fathers wanted to see happen. Under the current arrangement we have the best government money can buy.
Here is a website that exposes the "Evil" that Monsanto is. There is also a petition you can sign which will be used in court proceedings and in government meetings showing the vast number of citizens that are against what this company is perpetrating on people all over the world.
Read this release regarding genetically modified corn - very frightening what this corporation is doing the the people.
Here's another reason not to vote for Hillary! Geez, the stuff you learn on the internet is astonishing.............Bill/Hill Clinton put Monsanto in an extreme position of power in the country, and all around the world.
Just freakin' creepy what our government has become.
It's difficult to ban an entire company, but perhaps you mean the rbGH acceptance among some farming communities. It might be worth investigating if those dairy farmers get a serious kickback from Monsanto for using the hormone and publicizing its use in the media.
@David Silverberg
It's difficult to ban an entire company, but perhaps you mean the rbGH acceptance among some farming communities. It might be worth investigating if those dairy farmers get a serious kickback from Monsanto for using the hormone and publicizing its use in the media.
@lensman67
This is why we need to outlaw campaign contributions from corporations
@David Silverberg
. It might be worth investigating if those dairy farmers get a serious kickback from Monsanto for using the hormone and publicizing its use in the media.
Sickening.
I don't think I can count how many people that I know that have cancer and how many have died from it. And yet these sneaky greedy people want to add something for THEIR monetary benefit into our food supply.
"campaign contributions from corporations"
is one of the worst things that there is. They are buying the person that they want in office.
Monsanto is to agricultural science what Attila the Hun was to European civilization.
It is utter nonsense that growth hormones can't be identified.
All growth hormones are potentially dangerous, and should only be administered by doctors, not dairies, or strangely friendly cattle, wearing suits or otherwise.
Monsanto is probably running scared about some of the less adorable characteristics of its products. If ever proven to be toxic, the resulting prosecutions and class actions would be devastating.
Given the Canola Tyranny in Canada, the Terminator Gene, and a history of pure manipulation of the market and political power, it's about time Monsanto was called to account.
It's not illegal to lobby, but it is illegal to misrepresent your products.
Also worthy of note is that Monsanto is yet another American corporate which seems to be run entirely by its lawyers.
"We want to continue to reward and encourage producers who advocate the preservation of whichever U.S Food and Drug Administration-approved technology they use," said Brian Naber, Posilac brand manager for Monsanto Dairy.
Producers have until April 30 to enroll in the program to receive a rebate of up to $1 per dose of Posilac for the next year. Earnings will be accrued through April 2008, applied to a customer's account in June 2008 and eligible for use through August 2008. Posilac has been on the market for 13 years and Monsanto says that Posilac users average an extra 10 pounds per supplemented cow per day.
And...
Monsanto's move comes as controversy over the use of rBST has caused retail stores such as Starbucks to announce a ban on milk produced with rBST. California Dairies Inc. announced recently that after Aug. 1, cooperative members who use rbST will be assessed a "handling surcharge." Monsanto's rebate program is seen as a counter step to such actions, which are increasing across the U.S.
This is sooo wrong! Now they are basically "bribing" farmers with this rebate...unbelievable.
Wow, good find Bob.
I was reading up a bit yesterday on the dairy industry - which is the most highly regulated by the Fed of just about anything. They maximum price farmers can be paid is set by the government. With the major rise is production costs farmers are really in a bind. This "rebate" is going to be almost impossible for them not to accept, since they are essentially working and making no money. Huge conglomerates have taken over, and the independent farmer is constantly harrassed and sued by Monsanto. I read a story about a farmer who's field was reseeded due to wind by Monsanto's proprietary seeds and they sued him. Monsanto has also genetically engineered seeds that will not regerminate, which forces farmers to buy new seed each and every year. They have gone into small, third world countries and essentially bankrupted all of the local farmers, telling them how much money they would make, how great their crops would be if they used Monsanto products. These farmers fell for the BS, started working with Monsanto and then realized their errors. I guess 100's of them have actually committed suicide over what happened to them and their families as a result. This is one big, bad and ugly evil that operates globally.
The United States Government has been financing research on a genetic engineering technology which, when commercialized, will give its owners the power to control the food seed of entire nations or regions. The Government has been working quietly on this technology since 1983. Now, the little-known company that has been working in this genetic research with the Government’s US Department of Agriculture-- Delta & Pine Land-- is about to become part of the world’s largest supplier of patented genetically-modified seeds (GMO), Monsanto Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri.
Terminator Seed, as it is called, has been engineered to become sterile, and can not be replanted, forcing farmers to rebuy seed every single year.
Terminator seeds are sterile crop seeds patented and marketed by the Monsanto Corp. that have been biologically altered to sprout a permanently infertile plant. The large scale use of these seeds (which is already underway in over 78 countries) could directly threaten the well-being of 1.4 billion people who now depend on food grown with fertile seeds.
This would present a huge risk to the world because it could spread and sterilize all living plants, trees, etc. Farmers (and their neighbors, with plants 'accidentally' cross-pollinated by Terminator plants) would be forced to buy new seeds every year. For many of these farmers financial ruin would result, thus bringing on misery and famine for millions worldwide. Monsanto's seed program has no benefits for the world, only for the company's pocketbook. Discover Monsanto's fiendish plot to control the world's seed industry.
This story is very interesting and a huge, huge eye-opener! We need this kept in the media's light to make sure consumers and farmers alike are aware of Monsanto's wrong-doings.
My ex had a job in Pennsylvania at night putting barrel's of chemical's in the drinking water. He had chemical burns on his hands where the chemicals would touch his hands.
They say that is OK to have in our drinking water but they tell us the chemicals they put in our food are harmless too.
So we just graze on this chemical infested food & drink the chemical infested liquids like the rest of us sheepoles & just smile & think it's all OK.
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Monsanto Wants to Ban U.S. Milk Labelling, Hiding Food Info From Consumers
