New England Environmental Update
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First, I’d like to thank Harvey for asking me to be a guest blogger. I’m pleased to be one, particularly because I believe the environment must become a focus during the Obama term. I’m working later today, so I don’t have much time for a lengthy article, but I do have some good news and some resources you can check out.
It looks as though the New England milk supply will be rbGH-free by the end of the summer of 2009. According to Steve Taylor of Lancaster Farming, Agri-Mark has told its member farmers that if they want to continue to use bovine somatotropin to boost production, the milk will have to be trucked to New York at a cost to the producer. This move is in response to the threat of falling sales of the Cabot brand of cheeses if Agri-Mark continued to use rbGH milk at its cheese (VT) and butter (MA) plants.
While Monsanto has managed to be a monster on the seed front, it’s attempt at creating a similar rbGH milk market went bust. Demand has withered away due to consumer rejection of hormone use to boost milk production in cows and the resulting health hazards.
New England is pretty active on the environmental front, and I’m going to provide you with a link that will give you a rundown on the activity in Massachusetts. Other New England states can be accessed from there.
Comment by JimmyJusto on 19 February 2009:
I noticed a low fat Kraft Cheddar Cheese package with a disclosure paraphrased as “this cheese was not made from rbGH milk, although no studies indicated any difference in it from rbGH.” Are they lying on the package or are the “resulting health hazards” a fear, perhaps in the absence of studies, rather than a well studied conclusion?