It should come as no surprise that the dairy foods labeling issue is not going to go away any time soon. This latest story comes out of Vermont, the home of one of the country’s most recognized ice cream.
Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc., one of the first companies to label its ice cream as free of a synthetic hormone, is protesting a move by some states to restrict such labeling. The South Burlington ice-cream maker has joined a national campaign to block what critics say is an effort driven by Monsanto Co., which markets recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST, also known as recombinant bovine growth hormone, or rBGH.
Ben & Jerry’s, which first stamped its ice cream as rBGH-free more than a decade ago, has mounted a campaign aimed at marshaling its consumers to get involved. On its Web site, the company, which was bought by the Dutch conglomerate Unilever in 2000, uses illustrations of dairy cows with signs hung around their necks saying `rBGH Free, that’s me!’
It urges consumers to contact dairy companies and ask them for rGBH labeling.
”From the outset, when rBGH was approved, we wanted to make sure that we were able to tell that message on our packing that the family farmers that provide our dairy have pledged to not use rBGH,” Michalak said. ”We thought it was a very important message.”
”We’re very concerned about, from a primary standpoint, the freedom of speech to be able to put what we believe is truthful and appropriate messaging on our packaging,” said Rob Michalak, a spokesman for Ben & Jerry’s, which has mounted a campaign to get consumers on its side.
But a newly formed farmers’ group, backed by Monsanto, is pushing for labeling changes, saying the hormone-free labels imply that the milk is safer than other milk, when they say it’s not.
”There’s no question that rBST is safe. … That’s what’s so frustrating to us, that there are organizations out there that would indicate that it’s something other than safe,” said Carrol Campbell, a Kansas dairy farmer who co-chairs American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology, the new group.
He says they aren’t out to take choices away from consumers. They just want them to know that whatever choice they make, it’s the same, nutritious, wholesome product, he said.
Monsanto, a corporate sponsor of the group, says it’s a question of accuracy in labeling.
So far, efforts to ban hormone-free labeling have stalled. Pennsylvania, the nation’s fifth-largest dairy state, banned the hormone-free labeling in October, but later rescinded the ban.
Last week, an Indiana lawmaker pulled legislation that would have made it illegal to label dairy products as free of artificial growth hormone, since there’s no test to determine if the hormone was used. He said there was too much controversy about the labeling issue and that legislators needed more time to study it.
Ohio has held hearings on the issue, and the state’s agriculture director is expected to issue a decision early this year on dairy labeling.
Under FDA guidelines, companies are allowed to claim that their milk comes from cows that were not treated with rBGH, as long as the labels do not ”mislead consumers” to believe the milk is safer or better.
Ben & Jerry’s packaging says ”the FDA has said no significant difference has been shown and no test can now distinguish between milk from rBGH treated and untreated cows.”