Why should you care about this article? Because before several of House of Representative legislators spoke up, other legislators and important policymakers in Washington D.C. were exposed to misleading information about milk and dairy products in the one place you wouldn’t expect – the House cafeteria. Just another reason that dairy producers should make the effort to form relationships with their legislators, helping to ensure they are educated fairly on both sides of controversially issues.
Last spring the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, mandated a plan to create an “environmentally responsible and healthy working environment” throughout the House. It was to include energy efficiency, recycling and composting in the four House office buildings as well as the House side of the Capitol. When it came to the cafeterias and the other food concessions, it meant a revamping of the menus, to make them more local, organic and healthful.
The changes, instituted last month, would barely rate a mention in, say, Berkeley, Calif. But to some people here they represent an elitist misuse of public funds, and possibly a bit of anti-industry propaganda.
Restaurant Associates (which has the cafeteria contract) has received some complaints from lobbyists here about how their particular commodity is presented to potential diners, and a trade magazine and several lobbying groups have had something to say about a sustainability Web site set up by the company and linked to from the House dining services Web site.
Milk lobbyists called the Green the Capitol complaint line about a characterization of the hormone rBGH, which is not permitted in milk used in the food service.
The Web site had read: “Recombinant bovine growth hormone, or rBGH, is injected into dairy cows to artificially increase their milk production. The hormone has not been properly tested for safety. Milk labeled rBGH-free is produced by dairy cows that never received injections of this hormone.”
Milk lobbyists pointed out that the Food and Drug Administration considers the artificial hormone to be safe (although many scientists believe it may cause cancer).
The Feedstuffs editorial says rBGH milk is “as healthful and safe as milk from nontreated cows.” The Web site now reads: “Milk produced without synthetic rBGH is produced by dairy cows that never received injections of synthetic bovine growth hormone.”
The editorial says Restaurant Associates and its parent company, Compass Group, are “hooked by propaganda of animal rights groups” and are “advocates of vegetarianism.”