PA Bans Milk Label for a Hormone Banned in Europe, Japan and Canada

In another episode of the Red, White and Blue of Going Green’s “You Just Can’t Make This Up” series, today we visit the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s recent decision to ban labels on milk containers that tell consumers if the milk therein comes from cows not given a controversial synthetic growth hormone. Yes, in a move that has left farmers, retailers and consumers alike amazed, outraged and, for its sheer idiocy, bemused, Pennsylvania has decided to ban milk cartons that assure consumers that the cows that produced the milk therein were not shot up with a growth substance banned in Japan, Europe and Canada.

You know about rBGH and rBST, right? The Monsanto-produced artificial growth hormone that our FDA says is perfectly fine to use on our own USA cows (sorry, ladies) to artificially boost milk production? And while it’s illegal to juice up Bossie with this stuff in many other countries, now in Pennsylvania, the illegal thing is to tell consumers when their milk comes from cows given it.

Yes, fellow green patriots, at a time when the savviest retailers in the grocery biz, such as Kroger, Costco and Whole Foods, as well as restaurants like Starbucks and Chipotle Grill, are purging milk or cheese from their shelves that carry this artificial hormone, the folks at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture have decided that in their state, labels telling people about it on milk cartons is illegal.

How about a Cow-veat Emptor (Let The Milk Buyer Beware) label on the milk cartons in Pennsylvania, instead?

I told you, you just can’t make this up.

PS: Ohioans…watch out…similar discussion are afoot in your state's Department of Agriculture, too.