crossposted from unbossed

It's an uneven battle for the truth, given Monsanto's money and its stable of people like who will promote Monsanto's profits over our health. Link.  One thing working in Monsanto's favor is that, when things seem complicated, most people will tune out or take the position that the truth likes somewhere between. Another is that Monsanto is well funded, while those who work to publicize the truth are not.

But you can help by being informed and telling others about these shenanigans. And there are other things you can do to support the truth tellers.

crossposted from unbossed

Say you were a blogger and had written, oh, say, 20 or more stories on issues related to the use of Monsanto's rBST in milk. And say each time you wrote about the issue, for example, that the Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture had created a fake consumer committee to assess milk labeling, you were asked: "So what's the story with rBST / rBGH?"

How do you explain why rBST in milk is a problem? Now there is an easy way to explain it all.

crossposted from unbossed

Let me see. How many ways has Monsanto used front groups, fake "astroturf" groups, and fake science to get people to (a) stop worrying about the effects of using rBST / rBGH / Posilac / recombinant bovine growth hormone to produce milk and (b) buy more milk produced? And now there's a new one that is a real hoot!

Did you know that injecting dairy cows with Monsanto's recombinant hormones will save the planet for global warming?

Well, if Monsanto says so and uses one of its bought and paid for "scientists" and a Monsanto chemist to do the "study", well, it must be true!

Just because you haven't heard much lately about the Monsanto campaign to take away our right to know how our milk is produced does not mean nothing is happening. In fact, in recent months, in state after state, Monsanto is continuing to push.

This time the state is New York. If you are in New York and want to know whether your milk comes from cows who are not given artificial hormones, then you need to get your comments in immediately. Details below.

crossposted from unbossed

Today, April 7, is the deadline to sign up to participate in the Pennsylvania hearings whose main purpose seems to be to go after rBST-free milk, this time via a hearing on milk pricing.

And it is also the day a letter was sent to Ohio Governor Ted Strickland by public interest groups asking him not to bar us from knowing whether rBST has been used in producing our milk.

crossposted from unbossed

When Wal-Mart decided to go rBST-free last week,  Monsanto knew it was in big trouble. So it's pulling out the big guns.

Yes, when the going gets tough, Monsanto's astroturf groups get going.

crossposted from unbossed

You read it at here months ago. Amidst the victory celebrations when the harshest form of milk labeling ban failed in Pennsylvania, I predicted that this was not the end. I predicted that Monsanto and its wholly owned subsidiary army of minions would continue to push in many and insidious ways to make the world safe for rBST.  Here are some links you will find useful if you are new to this issue. link here  and here  and here  and here

So, Pennsylvanians, get ready again. The newest attack on your right to drink milk produced by cows not injected with rBST is on.

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.)

crossposted from unbossed

The Philadelphia Inquirer was the first to sound the alarm about Monsanto's campaign to censor milk labels and take our right to know how our food is produced. The story was picked up and moved forward by local independent papers such as Voices of Central Pennsylvania and the Williamsport Guardian.

But the newspaper that has really dug into the subject has been the New York Times. So here in chronological order is the story as carried by the Times this past year. Interesting where it has been carried as opinion or as news.

crossposted from unbossed

For months we have seen the results of Monsanto's stealth campaign popping up all over - a campaign to take away our right to know whether engineered hormones have been used to produce the milk we and our children drink. It's like a fungus growing underground until you see it pop up. Now the battle is on in Missouri, Ohio, Kansas, Utah, and more. The topic today is legislation introduced in MOnsanto that would forbid milk labels that give us the information we want in deciding which milk to buy.

Funny thing that if Monsanto thinks it's such a great product they don't want labels that tell us it's been used. Yep, a very funny thing.

crossposted from unbossed

Actually the Monsanto shills have never gone away. They are still busy setting up astroturf organization to promote their products - especially Posilac, the recombinant engineered hormone some farmers inject into cows in the hope of increasing their milk production and profits. Monsanto kicked the can down the road in Pennsylvania, not getting everything they wanted but getting more than they had. They have had mixed successes in Ohio and New Jersey.

And now they are busy in other states across the nation.

crossposted from unbossed This is part II of this inquiry into claims made for banning milk labeling that would reveal the use of rBST in its production. Part I is here on unbossed or here yesterday at Kos. This is also one of a series of now nearly twenty posts that all begin "Got rBST" and may be found with a search for the whole series at unbossed or most of them at Daily Kos.

OK, so let's assume that the reason Terry Etherton hasn't listed those 3000 studies he claims exist and show rBST is safe is that he is just so darned busy conducting scientific studies. So if he is too busy to justify his claim about those 3000 studies showing rBST is safe, how about Monsanto? Posilac is its product after all. It has the most to gain or lose in this debate. Surely, it has all the latest studies up on its website. Maybe there we can wade through and be dazzled by the well conceived, well executed studies that demonstrate that rBST is safe. Or at least that it is not unsafe.

crossposted from unbossed

At least two times, in public, Terry Etherton has claimed that there have been 3000 studies showing rBST is safe. Now, that is a heck of a lot of studies, and you would think this would be enough to put the matter at rest. So why is there still doubt?

[rBST stands for recombinant bovine somatotropin. It is a product manufactured by Monsanto to increase milk production in cows. It is sold as Posilac and has been controversial since its introduction. In many states now, there is a battle on to prevent milk labels that reveal whether rBST was used in the production of the milk. States where battles are being waged include Washington, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and others that have not yet surfaced. This diary is one of a series that all begin:"Got rBST?"]

crossposted from unbossed

Today we got good news. The Monsanto astroturf scheme to take away the rights of the citizens of Pennsylvania to know how their milk was produced lost . . .  mostly. The Department of Agriculture issued a notice removing the gag rule, but with lots of caveats.

But more important than the milk labeling is what this this battle says about democracy and how fragile it is.

crossposted from unbossed

This is part of a series on the ban on milk labeling.

Yesterday the good guys won - mostly - on the milk labeling ban, but the battle will continue, and we need to study what happened.

Terry Etherton participated in a discussion of Pennsylvania's milk labeling on WHYY, Tuesday's Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane. If you listen to the show (here via real player) you will hear him make certain claims over and over - when he wasn't shouting to try to keep the other guest, Consumer's Union Michael Hansen, from making important points about the weakness of Etherton's claims. You could almost gauge just how much Etherton's ox was gored by the level of his yelling.

Etherton was right on message with the behind-the-scenes propaganda campaign to make the world safe for Posilac a/k/a rBST. Wanna see what I mean?

crossposted from unbossed

Suddenly, it's all over the place - Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio - at almost the same time and using similar tactics - planning to ban milk labels that tell the public whether the milk we buy was produced using Monsanto's Posilac - that is, whether it was produced with recombinant bovine somatatrophin or recombinant bovine growth hormone - rBST / rBGH. An amazing coincidence?

crossposted from unbossed

How was it that Pennsylvania came to ban references to rBST on milk labels?

First, here's how the story goes, according to Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff.

CNJ News Service- Controversy hit the sport of cow milking today when allegations were made that record-making "Bossie" of the San Francisco Bovines has been secretly been taking hormones.  The drug in question is rbST (Recombinant bovine somatotropin) and is said to help cows produce up to 5 extra quarts per day in milk production.