Which Cows Do You Trust?

US - For demanding consumers, some dairy producers are demanding less milk from their cows — and charging more for it.
calendar icon 10 October 2006
clock icon 1 minute read
The dairy companies are bowing to the natural-foods trend by shunning milk from cows treated with genetically engineered growth hormone.

By labeling milk free of the artificial hormone, the dairy industry can ride the popularity of natural foods, without the greater expense and special feeds required to produce milk that can be fully certified as “organic.”

As a result hormone-free milk can be priced higher than conventionally labeled milk, but less than organic.

At a Safeway near central Seattle, for example, a half gallon of conventional Lucerne-brand whole milk was recently selling for $1.69, while the Horizon organic brand was priced at $3.69.

Priced neatly in between, at $2.79, was the Darigold milk labeled as “coming from cows not treated with the growth hormone rBST*”

The asterisk referred to tiny letters near the bottom of the carton indicating that the Food and Drug Administration says there is no difference between milk from treated and untreated cows.

Source: nytimes.com

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