A U.S. Senate committee is considering a bill banning labels that say, "this milk is produced without hormones." Why does this concern us? Well, consumers want information about milk additives as well as what the cattle producing the milk has ingested or had injected into their bodies. Knowing this information makes us educated consumers who can decide which milk to purchase for ourselves and our children.

Some people argue that if the milk comes from cows that were given growth hormones, that the milk should be labeled to indicate that. Some say the label should also say that the FDA has found no health risks from that milk.

Here is a condensed excerpt from an article I read on line entitled
"Bovine Growth Hormone Milk does Nobody Good," by Mike Ewall.
The recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), is a genetically engineered hormone manufactured by Monsanto, sometimes referred to as Bovine Somatotropin (rBST).
This hormone is injected in the cows every other week to force the cows to produce more milk than their bodies normally would. rBGH is similar, although not identical, to a hormone that the cow naturally produces. Increasing levels of this hormone boosts milk production, causing a number of problems with the milk.
Whenever cows are forced to produce more milk, they become more susceptible to udder infections called mastitis, which is then treated with antibiotics, increasing the antibiotics residues which are present in milk fed to consumers. Proponents of rBGH insist that milk is one of the most heavily regulated foods with regards to antibiotics. They claim that antibiotic residues in the milk couldn’t possibly reach the consumer because each tanker of milk is tested and would have to be thrown out if antibiotic residues were found.

It is possible that when cow's milk is consumed by humans, it behaves as a cancer-accelerator. Some of the cancer agents are not destroyed in the pasteurization process nor during human digestion and is therefore biologically active in humans, being associated with breast, prostate, and colon cancers.
If you want to learn more about rBGH-treated milk, visit http://www.ejnet.org/bgh/nogood.html
Google Bovine Growth Hormone, BGH, or Monsanto

How should milk be labeled — if at all? What do you think?
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