Maine Attorney General Not Cowed by Monsanto’s Claims about Maine Dairy Quality Seal

Maine’s Attorney General Steven Rowe has told Monsanto and others who challenged the Maine Quality Trademark on dairy products that their challenge is unwarranted.

Monsanto Corporation, the Biotechnology Association of Maine and three Maine dairy farms -- Linita Farm in Union, Poland Farm in Richmond and Thomas Farms of Garland, Inc., in Garland -- sent a letter to Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe and Maine Agriculture Commissioner Robert Spear in November requesting that Maine suspend the use of its Quality Trademark Seal program and that it initiate legal proceedings against two Maine dairies, Oakhurst and Hood, alleging unfair trade practices. The two dairies advertise their milk as coming from farms that pledge not to use artificial growth hormones. In order to use the Dairy Quality Trademark Seal, farmers must sign affidavits that they are not treating their cows with artificial hormones. (Robert Spear’s dairy farm family is among those who have signed the pledge.) Monsanto makes the genetically engineered recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH, also known as rBST, recombinant Bovine Somatotropin, and marketed as POSILAC 1 STEP). The letter from Monsanto et al. says that promoting milk as coming from untreated herds misleads consumers into believing that milk from untreated herds is better than that from cows that are injected with the synthetic hormone. The genetically engineered hormone is banned in Canada and the European Union but has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The Organic Consumers Association (www.purefood.org/rbghlink.html) alleges that:

-rBGH makes cows sick: Some 20 veterinary health risks are listed on the Posilac label, including mastitis and udder inflammation;

-rBGH milk is contaminated by pus from mastitis induced by rBGH, and by antibiotics used to treat the mastitis;

-rBGH milk is contaminated by the genetically engineered hormone, which can be absorbed through the gut and induce immunological effects;

-rBGH milk is chemically and nutritionally very different from natural milk;

-rBGH milk has high levels of a natural growth factor (IGF-1), excess levels of which have been incriminated as major causes of breast, colon and prostate cancers;

-rBGH factory farms threaten the viability of small dairy farms.

According to Rachel’s Environment & Health Weekly #621 (at www.organicconsumers.org/rBGH/rach621.htm), the Canadian government banned the use of Monsanto’s rBGH after studying Monsanto's 90-day rat feeding study and finding that 20% to 30% of the rats fed rBGH in high doses developed primary antibody responses to rBGH, indicating that rBGH was absorbed into their blood. An antibody response is evidence that the immune system has detected, and responded to, a substance entering the body. Furthermore, cysts reportedly developed on the thyroids of the male rats, and some increased infiltration of the prostate gland occurred. The Canadian government report concludes that "the 3-month rat study did show a physiological response."

On February 6, 2003, Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe responded to the letter from Monsanto and other challengers, strongly rejecting their claims. Rowe said that Maine’s affidavit system as used by buyers is legally sufficient and that dairies are not misleading consumers, because they are not making health claims; rather, they are just providing information. "Accordingly," wrote Rowe, "in our view no legal action is warranted with respect to the use of the Maine Quality Trademark. Likewise, we find that advertising accurately stating that milk comes from cows not treated with rBST or artificial growth hormones is neither false nor misleading."

--Jean English