American consumers, myself included are growing increasing concerned about the potentially harmful affects of rBGH on our health. As many retailers have begun to switch to rBGH-free dairy (such as Costco’s milk, and virtually all dairy at Trader Joe’s, and “Starbucks just made the move to rBGH-free dairy” as well), the agricultural biotech company, Monsanto, which manufactures POSILAC, is going after rBGH-free dairies.

POSILAC is sold to dairy farmers to increase milk production. It is banned in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of the EU. According to one of the few objective resources I could find (PubMed), rBST increased the risk of a cow failing to conceive by 40% and increased the risk of developing clinical signs of lameness by 55%. There are concerns, but no hard data that I have seen, that rBST causes sterility, infertility, birth defects, cancer, and immunological derangements. There simply is enough information out there to have me, and lots of others concerned about the potentially harmful effects of rGBH in milk.

Monsanto is taking a very aggressive position that completely disregards the potential impact of its product on the health of consumers. The company claims (see the press release) that the labels are “misleading” despite the fact that every label I have see has gone so far as to note that “no significant difference has been shown between milk derived from cows treated with artificial hormones and those not treated with artificial hormones.”

Another resource on rBGH (I can’t speak to its credibility):

What’s In Your Milk? by Dr. Samuel S. Epstein, M.D.