Milk Fight
By Kim Severson

The battle over milk from cows treated with artificial growth hormones is getting more intense on both sides.

On Friday, the Kansas House of Representatives approved a bill that would make it much harder for dairy producers who don’t use the synthetic hormone rBGH to make that clear on their labels. In effect, if you want to promote your milk as coming from hormone-free cows, it just got a lot harder in Kansas.

On the other end of the spectrum, an environmental group is circulating a petition to persuade legislators to let school districts buy milk from cows who haven’t been given the hormone to make them produce more milk. In addition to concerns about the growth hormone itself, some consumers feel the practice can lead to infections in the cow’s udders, which leads to more antibiotic use.

Carl Samuelson, the Long Island organizer for Food and Water Watch, said the national environmental group is gathering electronic signatures on dozens of petitions in school districts around the country. The goal is to get enough resolutions passed and to put enough pressure on members of Congress that the purity of milk will be an issue during this year’s work on the Child Nutrition Act.

Ideally, milk shakers hope, food service workers who actually order milk will be told to order rBGH-free or organic milk whenever possible.

A petition regarding milk in New York City schools is also being circulated.

According to organizers of the drive, even Starbucks, Chipotle restaurants, WalMart, Dannon, Kraft Foods, and WaWa, Kroger and Safeway stores have decided not to sell milk from cows who have been treated with artificial hormone.