Got rbST in Your Milk?

by George Raine
San Francisco Chronicle
March 25, 2007

Richard Cotta, CEO of California Dairies Inc., the nation's second-largest dairy cooperative, is guided by a simple business philosophy: "If you want milk with little blue dots, you'll have it, as long as you are willing to pay for it.''

So, when a string of major customers, including supermarket giant Safeway, came to his co-op saying they would no longer accept milk from cows treated with a genetically engineered growth hormone, the co-op bowed to the inevitable.

In January, California Dairies' board voted to ask its members not to inject synthetic bovine growth hormone into their cows. If they do, their milk will have to be segregated and they'll pay a surcharge.

"Consumer demand is obvious,'' Cotta said.

The action by a co-op that ships 50 million pounds of milk every day is part of a sweeping, consumer-driven agricultural makeover, in which suppliers are forced to adapt to a changing marketplace. Demand for natural foods is rising, while increasing numbers of consumers are avoiding products that rely on antibiotics or growth hormones. And food retailers are listening.

Recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rbST, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration 14 years ago. Injected every two weeks into cows, it sustains lactation by stimulating cows' appetites so they eat more and produce more milk, perhaps an extra 5 quarts per day.

The hormone supplements the natural bovine somatotropin (bST), or bovine growth hormone, produced in a cow's pituitary gland. St. Louis' Monsanto Co., which developed the synthetic hormone known by the trade name Posilac, says the increased milk output translates to an average increase in net profit for dairies of $100 a year per cow.

The synthetic hormone may have been used in 20 to 30 percent of the nation's cows since it became available in January 1994, according to some estimates.

But what may be a significant value to dairies can't compete against the growing attractiveness of the natural foods movement.

"Many customers have called to ask us to eliminate the use of hormones,'' said Teena Massingill, a spokeswoman at Safeway, which is based in Pleasanton. "Our goal is to provide customers products they want,'' she said.

Safeway eliminated rbST in its Northern California milk brands, Lucerne and Dairy Glen, in 2004. Safeway stores in Washington, Montana, Idaho and Texas are also rbST-free, as are its Genuardi's stores in Pennsylvania.

Indeed, the vast majority of milk sold in Northern California is rbST-free, Cotta said. Southern California was slower to change but is catching up, he added.

Safeway's Vons stores in Southern California recently told California Dairies it wants milk it orders from the co-op to be rbST-free by Aug. 1. Costco has made a similar order.

Starbucks spokeswoman Sanja Gould in Seattle said the company is already rbST-free in stores in Northern California, New England, New Mexico, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska. That represents 37 percent of its dairy volume. The company will be free of bovine growth hormone in other markets as supply becomes available, Gould said.

© 2007 Hearst Communications Inc.

Read "rBGH Revisited" for more about genetically engineered growth hormones in milk.