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Excerpt…
I got a bombshell dropped on me this past week when my milk inspector stopped by and said they had a meeting at our dairy (Swiss Premium Dairy, formerly Wengerts Dairy in Lebanon, PA), and have made a final decision to go 100% rBST free. As you may know, our dairy is owned by Dean Foods. They have targeted October 1st as the latest cutoff date to have no producers using rBST. Upon further questioning I was informed that 3 of their largest retailers are requesting rBST-free milk and threatening to pull their product if they don’t comply. At the same time our processor has developed a fine reputation in this area for the great product they supply from local well-kept and run dairy farms. They also said they will not compensate farmers in any way for giving up their right to use this safe, approved product. They admitted the public hasn’t given much pressure yet but this is business and you have to stay ahead of the ball.
Upon talking to the General Manager at the plant the next day, he said he doesn’t want to do this but his arm is being twisted by the retailers and he had to show now some sort of decision or lose his markets. He did say this is a real headache and he would back me 100% in anyway to possibly get this resolved.
It reminds me of the time about 15 years ago that our dairy sold their milk as a AA class dairy and most other milk was sold as single A milk. At that time a number of processors got together and had a ruling passed that their milk was no different and our dairy was informed that they were using “Super-Labeling” and it would no longer be allowed. Update to today - and, we have a much worse and blatant form of this “Super-Labeling” as the FDA put it. With the AA over A, we as farmers had to adhere to stricter bacteria count levels in our milk, but with rBST their is NO difference in the milk. Study after study by both sides of the issue have never been able to show a negative effect of rBST on cow or human. Plus, unlike say antibiotics, it is undetectable in the milk because rBST is the recombinant version of BST and is identical to what the cow produces naturally. This said, a dishonest person can sign a letter saying they are not using the product and continue to! Use it and nobody will ever know but the honest farmer takes the shaft. I have contacted some of the largest producers at our dairy and they all use rBST and have commented how it has made their cows healthier, extended the life of problem breeders, improved their bottom line, etc. At the same time they said they will NOT quit using it.
I personally feel the next step is not to educate the consumer or processor. I think this is great and we should keep doing it but it will not resolve this issue. As you know with the world today, the consumer continues to hear from the few loud extremists out there pushing this issue with no hard evidence to back up any of their claims. Also, we have learned that you cannot educate or negotiate with an extremist because they have their mind made up and also have to have an agenda to continue their funding….
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