It is a Fact (Says Monsanto)

Maybe you've been following the news about legislation popping up in states across the country to ban labeling dairy products that are free of Monsanto's synthetic growth hormone (interchangeably called rBST or rBGH).

Now, call me old-fashioned, but I still believe in that quaint idea of freedom of speech and freedom of choice. We should have the right to know how our food was made and be able to choose whether we want to eat it or not.

So far, the efforts to ban hormone-free labeling have stalled. In Pennsylvania, legislation passed that would have banned hormone-free labeling, but it was rescinded after significant citizen protest. And Indiana lawmakers pulled the legislation to ban such labeling there. But there are murmurings that other states will see the introduction of similar legislation soon.

So, who's behind these efforts to ban hormone-free labeling? Would it surprise you to hear it's the company that makes the synthetic hormone, Monsanto?

In the latest public relations twist, a new outfit called American Farmers for the Advancement of Conservation of Technology supposedly voices the concern of farmers who support the bans on labeling hormone-free dairy products.

But dig a little deeper and you'll find that the organization's website www.itisafact.org was registered to Susan Williams of Osborn Barr Communications, a brand management company whose clients include Monsanto.

In other words, American Farmers for the Advancement of Conservation of Technology is a classic front group. It sounds (and looks) like a megaphone for real farmers when in fact it was created and is funded by Monsanto.

In the media, though, the organization has been identified only with a slight qualification that it is "backed by Monsanto."

Lisa Rathke, of The Associated Press, for instance, quoted Carrol Campbell, a Kansas dairy farmer who co-chairs the group: "There's no question that rBST is safe... That's what's so frustrating to us, that there are organizations out there that would indicate that it's something other than safe."

Rathke's AP article was picked up widely--from the Trentonian to MSN.com Money to the Nashua Telegragh to The Guardian UK. If you were reading it, you couldn't be blamed for thinking that the organization was a legitimate expression of farmer concern and not what it is: a front group for a multinational company concerned about losing market share for one of its products.

The Center for Media and Democracy (on whose board I sit) has just partnered with the Consumers Union to help us I.D. front groups like this one. Check out their site here.

Isn't that Ironic?

When Monsanto chairman, president and CEO, Hugh Grant, made his remarks this year at the World Food Prize awards ceremony, I would guess he didn't mean them to be so damn ironic. In this op-ed piece in the Des Moines Register he closes on this point: "I know this: Proud men and women everywhere would rather produce their own food than wait to unload it from the back of a relief truck." That may be true, but his company has been a global force in disabling "proud men and women" from being able to feed themselves by saving, sharing, and planting their own seeds. The company has systematically attacked farmers for allegedly using their seeds without paying proprietary technology fees.

Starbucks and Safeway Say Hold the Hormone -- But Why Not Everywhere?

Looks like all this citizen outcry about not wanting artificial hormones in our cafe lattes paid off. The Safeway supermarket chain has said they will only stock rBGH-free milk on their shelves. And, Starbucks announced it will serve rBGH-free milk in its cafes in Oregon and Washington... so what about the rest of us?

rBGH, or recombinant bovine growth hormone, is a synthetic hormone sold on the market under the name "Posilac" and is produced by Monsanto (or, Monsanto). It is supposed to benefit dairy farmers by increasing milk production, but according to every farmer I've interviewed who has tried it, it does more harm than good: with artificially increased growth, cows tend to fall sicker easier. Public health advocates have also raised concerns about the human health impacts of consuming milk products with rBGH. (For more on this tale, read here about the attempt by journalists to investigate the rBGH story, and the reaction they spawned at Monsanto.) --Anna