Dearest Residents of the Buckeye State,
As reported this past Sunday in the NYTimes business section, Monsanto's sales of Posilac have been dropping off recently. So guess where they're turning for relief now? That's right, your very own Ohio Department of Agriculture. (See below for the details.)
I manage our activism efforts here at CREDO Action (from Working Assets), and have been working with shirah and some other activists in recent weeks to stop Monsanto's plans state-by-state. (Shirah, by the way, has an excellent diary posted today on media coverage of this issue... here.)
Monsanto (and the astroturf groups they support) say that there's no difference between milk from cows treated with rBGH and those not treated with the artificial hormones, but that's simply not true. Studies have shown elevated levels of IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor #1, for those of you keeping a lab notebook at home) in milk coming from rBGH-teated cows, and IGF-1 is linked to several types of cancer.
There's also the fact that rBGH elevates cows' metabolism and basically burns them out after 2-3 years of milk production, as opposed to 6-8 for cows not injected with "the juice."
Monsanto and their friends are currently trying to push a rule through the Ohio Dept. of Ag that would severely restrict what farmers and dairy producers can say on milk labels...so those rBGH statements you (hopefully) look for when you buy your milk would be basically illegal. (More details here.)
So, if you're an Ohio resident...and you're done digging out from what my friends back there are calling "the Blizzard of '08"...please get active today. Click here to take action -- our action page will send a fax to Gov. Strickland and an email in to the Dept. of Ag's comment box for this issue, and also copy your state representative and senator.
After all, shouldn't we be a lot more concerned with artificial hormones in our milk than we are with steroids in our baseball players?