Milk Choice

By Melinda Hemmelgarn

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

November 28, 2007

Available online at: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_539978.html

What irony!

Two months ago I attended the American Dietetic Association's annual conference in Philadelphia and got all teary-eyed at the Liberty Bell memorial.

Then last week my angry eyes read that Gov. Rendell plans to deny dairy farmers the freedom to label their milk produced without the artificial hormone rBGH and deny citizens their freedom of choice in the dairy aisle ("State's labeling changes raise ire of industry, consumers, health experts," Nov. 19 and PghTrib.com).

As a registered dietitian, I have my finger on the pulse of consumer food concerns.

We want more transparency in food production and labeling, not less; nor are we confused by "no rBGH" labels. And we have good reason for concern.

In the early 1990s, the U.S. General Accounting Office investigated the safety of rBGH injections and concluded that increased milk production resulting from treatment significantly increased the incidence of mastitis, requiring antibiotic therapy.

Regardless of whether or which antibiotic residues remain in the milk, a percentage of those antibiotics are excreted in manure, enter our ecosystem and contribute to antibiotic resistance.

It's time for another revolution, this time to take back our food system -- and our democracy.

Melinda Hemmelgarn
Columbia, Mo.
The writer, a former W.K. Kellogg food and society policy fellow, writes a newspaper column about food and society.