Ben & Jerry's Fights for Hormone-Free Label

Get ready for a food fight.

Ben & Jerry's, one of the first companies to label its ice cream as rBST-free, is joining others in a national effort to protest a ban on hormone-free labels, CBS News reported. Pennsylvania was recently the site of such a battle, as the state enacted a ban on the labels, only to approve the hormone-free labeling later. Indiana recently pulled legislation that would have banned the labels, and lawmakers in Ohio are expected to make a decision on them soon.

Advocates of the labels say consumers should know what is in their food, and this information provides consumers a choice. Critics, including a newly formed farmers' group, argue that the hormone-free labels imply that the milk is safer than other milk, which they say is not true. Monsanto, a corporation that manufactures rBST, a hormone approved by the FDA in the early 1990s to increase milk production in dairy cows, backs the farmers' group.

The use of rBST, which stands for recombinant bovine somatotropin and is also known as recombinant bovine growth hormone or rBGH, was not approved in Japan, Canada, or Europe. While the farmers argue rBST is safe for human consumption, others say we just don't know. CBS quotes Michael Hansen, a senior scientist with Consumers Union: "There are unanswered human questions with it. It probably should never have been approved."

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