What is rbst free milk

Is just a pledge from dairy farms not to use rBGH sufficient? Sarah Lozanova is an environmental journalist and copywriter and has worked as a consultant to help large corporations become more sustainable. Skip to content. College Application Season: Greenest Universities. Researchers who studied BST in cows found that cows with elevated levels of the hormone produced more milk. They also discovered that BST extracted from one cow and injected into another would result in higher levels of milk production for the BST treated cow.

Increased milk production per cow was attractive to some dairy farmers and as a result, synthesized BST was developed by recombining the DNA of bacteria to force them to produce the hormone. As a result, rBST treated milk was approved for commercial sale. In the end, dairies in the United States are allowed to use the rBST-free label as long as a disclaimer is included suggesting that no harmful human health effects have been linked with the hormone.

Cyanide , for example, is natural to outer space and nature but you'd never want to drink it. Moreover, milk produced with the aid of rBST is no less nutritious. Lastly, the breast cancer scare-mongering stemmed from the notion that rBST milk contains more of a hormone called insulin-like growth factor 1 IGF-1 , which is naturally produced by various tissues in the human body and may, as a side effect of its normal bodily functions , contribute to the risk of breast cancer.

Milk produced with rBST does indeed have a little more IGF-1 than normal milk, but the difference is so small that the average milk-drinking adult would receive just 0. With rBST, as well as other complicated issues where science and society collide, nuance matters. But consumers and activist groups didn't seem to be interested in honest, rational debate.

In , large chains Safeway, Chipotle , Kroger, and Starbucks dropped rBST-derived milk after consumer pressure, and over the past decade other businesses quietly followed suit. With little remaining demand, rBST is all but gone. Reyes Updated 11 a. Consumer and organic food groups were jubilant at the Ohio news, which may have far-reaching repercussions not only for all milk, but for genetically engineered foods. Both are a genetically engineered variation on naturally occurring hormone that farmers inject into cows to increase milk production by as much as 10 percent.

It has also been proven to increase the incidence of mastitis in cows , which as any breastfeeding mother knows is a painful condition requiring treatment by antibiotics — and indeed, rBGH use has also upped the use of antibiotics in dairy cattle. The United States is the only developed nation to allow people to drink milk from cows given artificial growth hormone. All 27 countries of the European Union, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada have banned its use in milk destined for human consumption.

Campaigns to restrict rBGH-free labeling were launched in 14 states, as this Ethicurean satire chronicled , but only Ohio passed the effort. Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one. Thanks to consumer pressure, approximately 60 percent of milk in the U.