Got Milk?  Got *Safe* Milk?

While the ads with celebrities sporting milk mustaches would have us believe that all milk is created equal, it is not.  Some milk comes from cows treated with recombinant bovine growth hormone, or rBGH, an artificial hormone used to increase milk production.  Children all over America may be drinking milk produced with this artificial hormone, which has questionable health effects, and Congress has an opportunity to change that.

Senators Harkin and Grassley, members of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and Representative Loebsack, on the House Education and Labor Committee, are in key positions to support giving schools the clear choice to buy artificial hormone-free and organic milk.

So what’s wrong with rBGH?  Injections of rBGH increase another hormone, IGF-1, in the cow and the cow’s milk. Numerous studies indicate that IGF-1 survives human digestion. Too much IGF-1 in humans is linked with increased rates of colon, breast and prostate cancer. While further research is necessary to determine whether there is a hard link between rBGH in milk and increased IGF-1 in humans, even a potential linkage should make parents think twice.  After all, milk is commonly consumed by the most vulnerable consumers—children.

Many Americans have already decided that there are too many unanswered questions about rBGH and have rejected milk produced with it.  Major corporations, including Walmart and Starbucks, have switched to rBGH-free milk. Yoplait Yogurt and Cabot Cheese recently committed to selling products free of rBGH, joining brands like Ben & Jerry’s, Stonyfield Farms and many more. In Iowa major dairy providers Roberts and Anderson Erickson have gone rBGH-free.  Dairy producers who still rely on using the artificial hormone are scrambling to find a market – and they may be setting their sights on our nation’s school cafeterias.

Every year, the National School Lunch Program and other government feeding programs feed millions of American children—last year, 30.5 million. According to the dairy industry, nearly 430 million gallons of milk were distributed through the National School Breakfast, Lunch and Special Milk programs during the 2005-2006 school year. The Child Nutrition Act regulates these programs, and it’s up for reauthorization this year. Congress should take the opportunity to make it easier for schools to purchase healthy, safe milk for their students.

Children don’t have the knowledge or the resources to make their own nutrition choices. This makes schools’ responsibility to serve safe and nutritious food a weighty one. That’s why schools must have the option of ordering rBGH-free milk for their cafeterias and meal programs.

With this year’s reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, Congress should let schools order rBGH-free or organic milk. Our children deserve no less.