Your Right to Know: Does your Milk have Artificial Hormones?

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CITIZENS for HEALTH

 

 

Dear Supporter,

As you know, we at Citizens for Health are committed to ensuring

consumers

have access to the information they need to make their own

decisions about

their health and wellness. A critical measure of this access is the

degree to

which products are fully and truthfully labeled to reflect what

they do - or do

not - contain.

Several large dairy producers and food companies have made news

recently by

getting rid of recombinant bovine growth hormone, also known as

rBGH or rBST,

from their milk supply. This is great news for consumers, since

this

genetically engineered growth hormone is known to cause harm to

cows and may pose

health risks to humans.

In yet another attack on consumers' right to know, Monsanto, the

company

that makes rBGH under the trade name Posilac, has asked the Food

and Drug

Administration to restrict the use of labels identifying " rBGH-free "

or

" rBST-free " dairy products. Monsanto claims such labels

are " misleading " to consumers,

and infer that dairy products without such a label are inferior.

We know better. Sales of products that are rBGH-free have increased

dramatically in recent years, and continue to grow. As mentioned

above, dairies and

food companies around the country are leaping to satisfy the

demand. Naturally

- pun intended - this makes Monsanto nervous as sales of its

hormone have

fallen. This move by Monsanto is nothing more than an effort to

protect its

financial bottom line at the expense of consumers' right to know.

TAKE ACTION:

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to

consumers, not corporate special interests!_

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For over 10 years, rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone), also

known as

rBST (recombinant bovine somatotropin), has been a staple in the

dairy

products consumed by Americans. Since these products are not

required to be labeled

as containing rBGH / rBST, most consumers have no idea that a

growth hormone

intended to induce dairy cows to be more productive is in much of

their milk,

cheese, and yogurt.

After approving the use of rBGH in 1993, the Food and Drug

Administration

has turned a deaf ear to the pleas of consumers, food safety

organizations and

scientists to reverse its approval of the hormone, or even to

simply require

labeling of foods containing rBGH. Even a legal challenge by the

Center for

Food Safety could not force FDA to reexamine the health threats of

rBGH. The

FDA's decision stood despite regulatory bodies in both Canada and

Europe

rejecting the hormone due to numerous animal and human health

concerns.

_Send an email today to preserve your right to know tomorrow!_

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The FDA approved the use of voluntary labels more than 12 years ago

at the

request of dairy companies seeking to respond to customer concerns

over the

use of the genetically-engineered hormone. Since the FDA refused

to require

mandatory labeling of dairy products from cows treated with rBGH,

voluntary

labeling of dairy products that do not contain rBGH is the only

resource

consumers have to make informed decisions about what to feed

themselves and their

families.

If Monsanto succeeds in convincing the FDA to restrict rBGH-free

labeling,

consumers will lose valuable information about how their food is

produced and

will be less able to make their own decisions about their health

and

wellness.

_Protect your right to know - send an email to the FDA today!_

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