Monsanto issued a lie filled press release today formally asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to punish dairies that label their milk.
Monsanto has a long history of trying to intimidate independent-minded dairies and bottlers who do not want use their dangerous growth hormones.
Monsanto said:
Monsanto Company announced that letters from more than 500 concerned individuals and Monsanto have been submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requesting action to stop deceptive milk labeling and advertising. The two letters outline how certain milk labels and promotions that differentiate milk based on farmer use of POSILAC bovine somatotropin (bST) are misleading to consumers and do not meet the standards set by laws and regulations for either the Federal Trade Commission or the Food and Drug Administration.
“The people who signed these letters are dairy producers, industry professionals and consumers from across the country who have expressed concerns about specific labels they find to be false or misleading,” said Kevin Holloway, president of Monsanto Dairy Business. “In many cases, they came to Monsanto to find out what could be done about milk marketing tactics that disparage milk and deny farmers a choice in using approved technologies. We believe FDA and FTC are the correct agencies to address the matter with the companies who employ misleading labels or promotions.”
The letter to the FDA highlights deceptive milk labels and calls for clear guidance and enforcement by FDA to address labeling that disparages milk from cows supplemented with POSILAC.
“This is of great concern to dairy producers” said Dennis Areias, a Los Banos, Calif., dairy producer who signed the letters. “Deceptive labels suggest to consumers that there is something wrong with the milk they have been drinking for the past 13 years. Even though the companies that print these labels know this is not true, they choose to mislead consumers in an effort to charge more money for the same milk.”
FDA conducted a thorough review of POSILAC before approving the product in 1993 and determined milk from supplemented cows to be the same as milk from non-supplemented cows. In a recent study, lab analysis of 95 different brands of retail milk purchased in 48 states confirmed all milk naturally contains the same hormones. There was no difference in hormone content of retail milk based on label claims regarding the use of POSILAC. The findings of the study, conducted by Monsanto with third-party testing facilities and an independent auditing firm, reinforce that milk marketing claims differentiating milk based on the use of POSILAC are meaningless.
POSILAC is an FDA-approved supplement used by U.S. dairy farmers to increase productivity.
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