Concerned Farmers and Consumers Warn FDA Commissioner Hamburg and Sen. Kohl Against Unsafe Dairy Products!
UW-Madison's Babcock Hall Still Serving Dangerous rBGH Milk to Unsuspecting UW-Madison Students, Staff, Faculty, and Visitors!
For Immediate Release 8/11/09
Contact:
Family Farm Defenders: #608-260-0900
Food and Water Watch #202-683-2500
Tues. Oct. 11th 12:30 pm
Babcock Hall Dairy Plant 1605 Linden Dr. in Madison
When Sen. Kohl and FDA Commissioner Hamburg visit UW's Babcock Hall Dairy Plant today, concerned family farmers and consumers will be on hand to warn passerbys against eating the dangerous biotech dairy products emanating from the facility.
Since the early 1980s - years prior to formal FDA approval - UW-Madison has been serving the dubious rBGH byproducts of its dairy herd experiments to unwitting students, staff, faculty, visitors, and even patients at the hospital without their knowledge or permission. Today, the UW continues to push this discredited technology - rejected by the majority of consumers, farmers, and the dairy industry itself - ignoring widespread scientific evidence of potential human health concerns.
"In light of all the mounting evidence against rBGH from so many prominent scientists and organizations such as Dr. Samuel Epstein at the Univ. of Chicago and Michael Hanson with the Consumers Union, it is shocking that UW-Madison would still offer these products to the university community without proper warning labels," noted John Kinsman, WI dairy farmer and president of Family Farm Defenders. "It is also downright embarrassing to have a supposed leader among land grant colleges still playing catch-up to the rest of world when it comes to going rBGH free."
Farmers and consumers will be handing out flyers about the dangers of rBGH and urging UW's Babcock Hall to finally enter the 21st century by transitioning its dairy products away from corporate genetic modification as soon as possible to provide a healthier alternative to the general public.
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WORT Community Radio's In Our Backyard local news program interviewed FFD members at the leaflet outside UW's Babcock Hall - to listen to their coverage of the action, visit:
http://archive.wort-fm.org/mp3/wort_090811_183001iobytue.mp3
Got Pus?
UW-Madison's Babcock Hall Continues to Sell rBGH Products to Students, Staff, Faculty, and Visitors Without Their Knowledge or Consent
By: John E. Peck, executive director, Family Farm Defenders
Despite over two decades of farmer, consumer, and student protest, UW-Madison's Babcock Hall continues to serve rBGH-induced dairy products to those on campus without their knowledge or consent. By using the campus as a guinea pig for this questionable technology, UW-Madison has once again bowed to the wishes of the biotech industry. In the past UW Babcock Hall's manager, Tom Blattner, has asserted that there has been "little consumer concern in recent years about the BST issue’ and that it's "difficult for us to obtain the quantity and quality of (certified rBGH-free milk) that we need." Both of these statements are outright false given the latest trend towards rejection of rBGH by all the major dairy processors and retailers in the U.S., and the steady transition of WI family dairy farmers to healthier organic and grass-based systems. To read more, click here
Yoplait Champion Returns Breast Cancer Money in Protest Over Yoplait's Use of rBGH
On June 30th, 2008 Anne Fonfa of the Annie Appleseed Project sent back an award check from General Mills citing the company's continued use of rBGH in yoghurt as a possible contributing factor for breast cancer...
To read the full letter, click read more
You can also contact General Mills to demand that they go rBGH-free with their Yoplait yoghurt!
General Mills, P.O. Box 9452, Minneapolis, MN 55440 tel. 1-800-967-5248
Keep Monsanto Out Of Our Milk
By: Michael Hansen and David Wallinga
Published Monday, September 10, 2007 by The Providence Journal (Providence, RI)
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/10/3727/
The recent announcement by Kroger stores that it will no longer use the genetically engineered growth hormone rbST (also known as rbGH) in its private label milk brand is part of a nationwide trend among dairy processors, retailers and farmers. Starbucks, Tillamook, Safeway and Chipotle Restaurants have already begun to discontinue the hormone and California Dairies Inc., which produces nearly 10 percent of the nation’s milk, announced it went rbST-free Aug. 1. read more
read more...
Factsheet on rBGH from Food and Water Watch
Also available at: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/dairy/factsheet
What is rBGH?
Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH or rBST) is a genetically engineered hormone injected into cows to increase milk production by 8-17 percent. The Monsanto Corporation manufactures the product, which is sold under the trade name Posilac.
Background
In 1993, the FDA approved rBGH, even though many scientists and government leaders were critical of the hormone, the inadequate research on its risks, and the approval process. Twelve years after it was approved in the U.S., significant health concerns regarding rBGH remain. The European Union, as well as Japan, Canada, and Australia have banned rBGH. Codex Alimentarius, the U.N. body that sets food safety standards, has refused to approve the safety of rBGH three times.
Health Effects
Recombinant bovine growth hormone causes harm to cows and may pose harm to humans.
Cancer Risk
Injections of rBGH increase another powerful hormone, called IGF-1, in the cow and the cow’s milk. Numerous studies indicate that IGF-1 survives digestion. Too much IGF-1 in humans is linked with increased rates of colon, breast, and prostate cancer. “Definitive studies demonstrating the lack of absorption of rBST or IGF-1 upon oral administration were neither conducted nor requested” Health Canada concluded. “Simply not enough is known about how IGF-1 functions to properly evaluate the potential health impacts.”
While it’s not clear that rBGH given to cows significantly increases IGF-1 in humans, why take the chance simply so dairies can produce more milk from fewer cows?
Mastitis and Antibiotic Resistance
Use of rBGH on dairy cows increases the rate of mastitis, a bacterial udder infection, by 25%. Mastitis leads to increased use of antibiotics, including important ones used to treat humans, like penicillin. The overuse of antibiotics is already a serious problem in the livestock industry – giving rise to new strains of “superbugs” that are becoming more resistant to antibiotics and are strongly linked to hard-to-treat illnesses in people.
In 1992, the U.S. General Accounting Office recommended that the FDA not approve rBGH until the mastisis problem was further studied. “Concern exists now about whether antibiotic levels in milk are already too high,” the GAO wrote. “[T]here has been no examination of whether rBGH use will increase antibiotic levels in milk or beef beyond that which currently exist and, if so, to what degree those levels are acceptable.” RBGH also increases birth defects, pus in milk, and clinical lameness in cows.
Possible allergic reactions
In one study, rats that were fed rBGH, including one given a relatively low dose, developed antibodies to rBGH. This effect, if validated, “would suggest the possibility of occasional hypersensitivity reactions in those consuming food products from rBST-treated cattle.” The FDA brushed aside these disturbing results and did not fully investigate these results.
A Tool for Factory Farms
In the United States, about 15% of the dairy herds use recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone; overall, approximately 22% of dairy cows in the U.S. are injected with the hormone. For the most part, this hormone is a tool for dairy factory farms to eke out even more milk per cow. The hormone is used in 54% of large herds (500 animals or more), 32% of medium herds, and only 8% of small herds.
Consumer Backlash
Consumers are seeking dairy products produced without rBGH, and companies are responding. Most recently, the Tillamook County Creamery Association, a 150-dairy farmer cooperative, voted to ban rBGH in their cheese production due to consumer requests. Ben & Jerry’s ice cream brand is also rBGH-free. The company explains this decision by saying “We think its use is a step in the wrong direction toward a synthetic, chemically-intensive, factory-produced food supply.”
Several years ago, Oakhurst Dairy in Maine was sued for advertising their products as rBGH-free; they were eventually required to state that the FDA has not found any significant difference between products with and without the hormone on their products. Nevertheless, almost all dairy products sold in Maine are rBGH-free, in response to consumer rejection of the product. And organic food, which cannot be produced with growth hormones, is a skyrocketing market, growing almost 20% annually over the last decade. Organic dairy products constituted $1.3 billion in sales in 2003.
What You Can Do:
Purchase dairy products that are labeled “rBGH-free,” “rBST-free,” or “organic.” Also, tell your supermarket, favorite dairy brand, and school district that you want dairy products that were not made with rBGH.
