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<TITLE>'Hormone free' milk labeling ban in PA postponed</TITLE>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Following up on a previous post…</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">==========================</FONT>
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<P><B><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">'Hormone free' milk labeling ban postponed</FONT></B>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Wire Report</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Article Launched: 11/29/2007 12:39:31 PM EST</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Original URL: </FONT><A HREF="http://www.eveningsun.com/localnews/ci_7590747"><U></U><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">http://www.eveningsun.com/localnews/ci_7590747</FONT></U></A>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">HARRISBURG (AP) -- The state is reconsidering a decision that would stop dairies from labeling milk containers as hormone-free. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">The additional scrutiny by the Agriculture Department and governor's office is expected to take two months or more, postponing the new rule at least a month beyond its original Jan. 1 effective date. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">A spokesman for Gov. Ed Rendell says opposition from rural lawmakers and farm lobbyists prompted the additional review. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"We've gotten feedback from a wide variety of people, both for and against," state Agriculture Department spokesman Chris Ryder said Wednesday. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">The department recently announced it would act against misleading labels on dairy products, particularly claims that milk is free from artificial growth hormones. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Agriculture Secretary Dennis C. Wolff said such claims are misleading to the public and unfair to competitors - a brand calling itself free from artificial hormones can imply that other milk is unsafe. Synthetic hormones are injected into cows to improve milk production </FONT></P>
<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">but have never been detected in milk. </FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Consumer demand has resulted in more products being billed as hormone-free. A recent national price survey found that hormone-free milk prices were typically about 25 percent higher than milk without the claims.</FONT></P>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial"></FONT> <FONT SIZE=1 FACE="Tahoma">-----Original Message-----</FONT>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=1 FACE="Tahoma">From: </FONT></B> <FONT SIZE=1 FACE="Tahoma">Bowling, Patrick </FONT>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=1 FACE="Tahoma">Sent: </FONT></B> <FONT SIZE=1 FACE="Tahoma">Thursday, November 15, 2007 10:25 AM</FONT>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=1 FACE="Tahoma">To: </FONT></B> <FONT SIZE=1 FACE="Tahoma">'pharmwaste@lists.dep.state.fl.us'</FONT>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=1 FACE="Tahoma">Subject: </FONT></B> <FONT SIZE=1 FACE="Tahoma">Milk sold in PA can't be labeled "hormone-free"</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Apparently, a few other states are considering this, too. At least one dairy chain in PA that does not use artificial growth hormones and wanted to advertise that was protesting this at the capitol this week.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">========================</FONT>
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<P><B><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Milk can't be labeled 'hormone-free'</FONT></B>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">By MARK SCOLFORO </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Associated Press Writer</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Article Launched: 11/14/2007 09:58:39 AM EST</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Original URL: </FONT><A HREF="http://www.eveningsun.com/localnews/ci_7459456"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">http://www.eveningsun.com/localnews/ci_7459456</FONT></U></A>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">HARRISBURG -- Pennsylvania is stopping dairies from stamping milk containers with hormone-free labels in a precedent-setting decision being closely watched by the industry. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Synthetic hormones have been used to improve milk production in cows for more than a decade. The chemical has not been detected in milk, so there is no way to test for its use, but a growing number of retailers have been selling and promoting hormone-free products in response to consumer demand. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">State Agriculture Secretary Dennis C. Wolff said advertising one brand of milk as free from artificial hormones implies that competitors' milk is not safe, and often comes with what he said is an unjustified higher price. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"It's kind of like a nuclear arms race," Wolff said. "One dairy does it and the next tries to outdo them. It's absolutely crazy." </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Agricultural regulators in at least two other states, New Jersey and Ohio, are considering following suit, the latest battle in a long-standing dispute over whether injecting cows with bovine growth hormone affects milk. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Effective Jan. 1, dairies selling milk in Pennsylvania, the nation's fifth-largest dairy state, will be banned from advertising on milk containers that their product comes from cows that have never been treated with rBST, or recombinant bovine somatotropin. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">The product, sold by St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. under the brand name Posilac, is the country's largest-selling dairy pharmaceutical. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">It has been approved for use in the U.S. since 1994, although safety concerns have spurred an increase in rBST-free product sales. The hormone is banned in the European Union, Canada, Australia and Japan, largely out of concern that it may be harmful to herd health. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Monsanto spokesman Michael Doane said the Pennsylvania labeling restriction is "a landmark decision." </FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Last month, the Federal Trade Commission denied a request from Monsanto that it act against a half-dozen dairies for advertising milk as being free from synthetic hormones, but did warn a few small businesses about making unfounded claims against rBST. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">The hormone-free label "implies to consumers, who may or may not be informed on these issues, that there's a health-and-safety difference between these two milks, that there's 'good' milk and 'bad' milk, and we know that's not the case," Doane said. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Rick North of the Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, a leading critic of the artificial growth hormone, called the Pennsylvania rules "censorship, pure and simple." </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"This is a clear example of Monsanto's influence and what they're trying to do all over the country," he said. "They're getting clobbered in the marketplace by consumers everywhere wanting (synthetic-hormone)-free products." </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Acting on a recommendation of an advisory panel, the Pennsylvania Agriculture Department has notified 16 dairies in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts that their labels were false or misleading and had to be changed by the end of December. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">The order also bars other kinds of "absence labeling," including claims that milk is free of pesticides or antibiotics, which all milk normally is. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"There's absolutely no way to certify whether the milk is from cattle treated or not treated" with rBST, Wolff said. "Some of the dairies that have enforced this, it's absolutely the honor system." </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Rutter's Dairy Inc., a central Pennsylvania company that sells about 300,000 gallons a week, began promoting its milk as free of artificial hormones this summer after requiring its 80 supplier farms to stop using rBST. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">It has fired back at the state decision with full-page newspaper ads and a lobbying campaign to undo the new rule. It is also urging customers to protest. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"We just think the consumers are more keenly aware in today's world about where their food comes from and how their food is manufactured or handled," said Rutter's president, Todd Rutter. "They like this type of data." </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Rutter's sells its milk at the state's minimum price, but a national spot check of prices by the American Farm Bureau last month found "rBST-free" milk typically costs about 25 percent more. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">An announcement earlier this year by the Publix Super Markets chain that its private-label milk would be "rBST-free" spurred milk bottlers throughout the Southeast to follow suit, said Amber DuMont with the Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">All milk is "safe and wholesome regardless," she said, although consumers are increasingly demanding artificial hormone-free milk. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">"Why would a consumer choose to purchase organic products vs. conventionally treated products? Because they have an interest in how that product was produced," she said. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Organic labeling, Wolff said, involves a certification process that includes surprise audits, so the department does not currently intend to interfere with it. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">State regulators also are looking at labeling claims on other dairy products, considering action on improperly labeled eggs and poultry, and keeping an eye out for other products that state or infer a "we're safe, they're not" claim. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">The milk labeling crackdown followed a unanimous determination by Wolff's 22-member Food Labeling Advisory Committee that significant problems with food labels confused consumers. The committee included consumer advocates, food marketers, restaurateurs, veterinarians, the dairy industry and several state agencies. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Wolff, whose family dairy business has used Posilac in the past, said he had no contact with Monsanto and the company had no input in the decision.</FONT></P>
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<BR><B><I><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">G. Patrick Bowling, P.G.</FONT></I></B>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">PA Department of Environmental Protection</FONT></B>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Bureau of Watershed Management</FONT></B>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">P.O. Box 8555</FONT></B>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Harrisburg, PA 17105-8555</FONT></B>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">phone: 717-772-4048</FONT></B>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">fax: 717-787-9549</FONT></B>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">e-mail: gbowling@state.pa.us</FONT></B>
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