PA Secretary of Ag Screws Consumers, Helps Monsanto

In October, Dennis Wolff, Pennsylvania's Secretary of Agriculture, gave a huge gift to the Monsanto company.

Bovine growth hormone (BGH) is an artificial additive used by industrial dairies to increase milk production.  Wolff issued an order banning dairies from using labels that say their products are free of BGH - even when those labels are telling the truth.

The order is here.

This was reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer here.  There was also an article, "Consumers Won't Know What They're Missing" in the November 11 New York Times (here).

Maybe BGH is safe.  But many people are concerned about its safety.  Many others simply prefer to support non-industrial agricultural practices that don't involve chemical additives like BGH.  These consumers want labels to reveal whether or not their milk contains BGH, so they can make an informed choice.  After all, isn't that how the so-called "free market" is supposed to work?

So, if a label truthfully claims that no BGH was used to make that milk, what's the problem?

The problem is that the Monsanto company, which makes BGH, doesn't like it when dairies claim that their milk is free of BGH.  They say it implies that BGH is somehow unsafe.

The article in the Philadelphia Inquirer states that many dairies are now becoming BGH-free.  This has Monsanto worried.

The article in the New York Times makes it very clear that Wolff's justifications for this order are completely phony and without any basis in fact.  For example, Wolff claims that consumers are confused by the current labels.  But, says the NYT:

Mr. Wolff’s office could not provide surveys or research showing that consumers were confused by the issue, and was unable to come up with even one name of a consumer who had complained.

The NYT article also says that Monsanto has been trying for years to get state and federal regulators to ban these labels.  What's not clear is what kind of pressure they brought to bear on the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and on Secretary Wolff.  I will be filing a request under Pennsylvania's Right to Know Law (here), asking for copies of all correspondence between the PA Department of Agriculture and Monsanto related to this.  I encourage other Pennsylvania residents to do the same, and also ask Governor Ed Rendell (contact him here) to fire Wolff.

One has to wonder: is PA's Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff taking bribes from Monsanto?  Will he soon quit his job to start working for Monsanto?  Or did he offer this gift to Monsanto out of the goodness of his heart, without being offered anything in return?

An earlier version of this was posted on Unbossed.