Published: February 28, 2008 10:49 am            

Letter: ‘Let’s get real’ about the truth behind rbST milk

Originally published in the February 22, 2008, print edition.

To the Editor:

It should be reality check time for Monsanto and some of their friends at Purdue University. A Feb. 8 news story in The Land titled “Loss of rbST could cost dairy farmers, consumers” left no doubt that some our University people are quite out of touch.

Corrine Alexander, a Purdue agricultural economist, made this statement about recombinant bovine somatotropin-free milk: “Even though the milk is more expensive to produce, retailers may sell the rbST-free milk at a lower profit initially in order to get customers used to the product.” This bears repeating — “... retailers may sell rbST-free milk at a lower profit initially in order to get consumers used to the product.” Don’t laugh, this is coming from a college-educated agricultural economist. (Those of you in the real world know that rbST-free milk is selling for a premium.)

Another Purdue Extension dairy specialist Michael Schuntz explained how the loss of rbST could cause some producers to go out of business. He said “rbST was kind of an equalizer for farmers with smaller herds.” He then used as an example a 400-cow herd. The owner stated that “weaning his herd of rbST will cost him about $120,000 in lost milk production.” I don’t ever remember having a similar problem with the natural occurring hormone.

If my memory is correct, when Monsanto was petitioning the Food and Drug Administration to allow rbST on the market about 85 percent of dairy producers did not want to use the product. I don’t remember any consumer groups clamoring for rbST-enriched milk. After rbST came on the market, consumers began demanding rbST-free milk. It was a struggle to get the FDA to allow labeling which would give the consumer a choice. The rbST-free milk that consumers were demanding cost a little more than the rbST milk that nobody wanted because it had to be kept separate to avoid contamination.

Now that the backlash against rbST milk has reached the tipping point, these Purdue University specialists are crying wolf about how the consumer and the dairy farmers will suffer if this technology no longer allowed. According to them, not only will we have to wean the cows off rbST but we may have to wean the consumers off rbST milk. Let’s get real.

I have made several attempts to find out how much Monsanto has gifted or contributed to research at Purdue but was told that information is either unavailable or confidential.

Bill McMillin
Kellogg

        

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