Citizens for Health Celebrates Victory in Pennsylvania Milk Labeling Decision

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell ackowledges consumers' protest and intervenes to reverse decision to ban milk labeling

Minneapolis, MN, January 22nd, 2008 - Citizens for Health, the voice of the natural health consumer, congratulates Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell for heeding the voices of thousands of consumers opposed to the state's plan to ban anything on milk labels about their use or non-use of hormones. The decision was announced in October by the PA Department of Agriculture and was supposed to go into effect on February 1st, but a bombardment of consumer emails, letters and calls into the Governor's office, many from Citizens for Health members, convinced him to intervene and reverse the labeling prohibition.

In October, Pennsylvania became the first state to ban the practice of labeling milk as free from Monsanto’s artificial growth hormone rBST, also known as rbGH (synthetic or recombinant bovine growth hormone). According to the state agriculture secretary, Dennis Wolff, who issued notice of the ban, the labels were too confusing since milk already has naturally occurring hormones and it might be difficult to verify whether “coming from cows not treated with rBST” was actually true .

Hogwash. And consumers in Pennsylvania weren't buying it.

"This is a victory for all Pennsylvanians who believe, as we do, that they have a right to be informed about what they put into their bodies," said Frank Herd, Jr, Executive Director of Citizens for Health. "We find it hard to believe that the decision to ban milk labeling had anything to do with preventing confusion among consumers.  Was the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture actually implying that consumers aren't capable of understanding important information about what they eat and drink? This was about Monsanto and their profits that continue to drop as more and more people turn to healthier alternatives."

It is worth noting that more and more people are already turning to organic milk and milk from producers who choose to avoid rBGH. This has cut into the profits of Monsanto, the marketer of the drug that increases a cow's ability to produce milk. While Monsanto will not release sales figures, they claimed at one time that one-third of the nation's dairy cows were injected with the drug, commercially known as Posilac. More recent data suggests a different picture: according to Consumers Union, the number of cows treated with the drug has dropped from 22.3% of all dairy cows in 2002 to 17.2% in 2007.

One new requirement in the Pennsylvania regulations is that dairies must maintain procedures to verify any production methods claimed on their labels, including keeping a paper audit trail. Citizens for Health applauds this requirement and believes that in order to be informed, consumers need access not just to any information, but to truthful, non-misleading health information.

Many Pennsylvania dairy farmers already refrain from using rbGH and are advertising this fact on milk labels; the new rules will allow them to continue to do so. Other states including Washington, Missouri, and Ohio, are considering regulations similar to those originally proposed for Pennsylvania, and Citizens for Health is involved in those states in an effort to preserve the ability of milk producers to communicate to their customers about how they produce their products. "This victory in Pennsylvania is a big step toward further victories in other states," said Herd, Jr. "This is not a fight just over hormones in milk. It is a piece of a much larger picture - one that encompasses labeling, food from clones, food that has been irradiated, genetically modified organisms, you name it. It is fundamentally a debate about whether or not consumers should have control over what they eat and drink. We believe they do."

The new regulations will go into effect at the end of January and will bring Pennsylvania label requirements in line with the recommendations of the FDA.

To read the original letter to Governor Rendell, download the attachment below.