Posted on 03/25/2005 2:18:41 PM PST by crazyhorse691
Oregon has witnessed a prime-time assault by activist wolves in consumer clothes, with the Tillamook County Creamery Association, one of the state's best food ambassadors, as the victim. While private groups or companies should, of course, have the right to respond to their customers' concerns as they see fit, there is plenty of evidence that the recent Tillamook controversy was contrived.
At issue was the use of recombinant bovine somatotropin -- or rbST -- the FDA-approved cow productivity supplement. Tillamook says it received "thousands" of complaints from "concerned consumers" demanding its farmers stop using rbST.
Sold by Monsanto Co. and marketed as Posilac, rbST is a genetically engineered carbon copy of a cow's natural milk-production hormone, bST. Farmers use it because it helps increase milk production without additional feed, water and associated animal wastes. The supplement also cuts costs, important for many family farmers in today's tight market.
Sadly, activists have been attacking rbST for more than a decade, alleging a range of human health and animal welfare scares. But that's all they are, scares.
Using rbST doesn't change the milk one bit. So say the scientists with the Food and Drug Administration. All cows produce bST naturally, and the milk from supplemented cows is indistinguishable from milk from non-supplemented cows. The urban myth that your daughter will go into puberty at the age of 8 by drinking milk from supplemented cows is just that, a myth.
Another baseless scare is that rbST harms cows. The scientific, animal welfare and medical evidence supporting the use of this product is overwhelming and comprehensive, explaining why the FDA approved rbST more than 10 years ago.
Having failed to hoodwink the FDA, anti-biotech activists have switched to directly attacking companies. Over the past year, the Tillamook Creamery, the second largest cheese producer in the United States, has been the target. Rick North of Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility led the campaign. With the help of an army of fellow activists -- many backed by organic food companies -- they inundated Tillamook with so-called "consumer complaints."
It worked. Hours after Tillamook caved, North sent out an e-mail bragging about their newest victim. Anyone can verify all of this with a simple Web search under the terms "Tillamook," "rbST" and "action alert."
North wrote, "If ever there was a demonstration that this genetically engineered hormone has nothing to offer but increased disease rates in cows and health risks to consumers, this was it." Isn't it interesting that these activists believe a few thousand fear-driven complaints are "proof" of disease and health risks that years of actual scientific research have failed to identify?
North even admitted that his group never really cared about which way the Tillamook vote went, writing: "It's funny. But regarding what Oregon PSR will do now, it really didn't make any difference which way Tillamook voted. We'll just keep developing our grass roots efforts and continue to educate the public so they can make well-informed decisions about buying dairy products. In many ways, we're just getting started."
The vast majority of consumers care about fresh, safe, nutritious, affordable dairy products. Without prompting, consumers rarely, if ever, mention farm production issues such as rbST -- unless they are the target of a fear-based propaganda campaign.
As long as companies allow themselves to be coerced by social activists, their demands will continue.
Alex Avery is director of research at the Hudson Institute's Center for Global Food Issues in Churchville, Va. Terry Witt is executive director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter in Salem.
I always buy Tillamook cheese and butter here in SoCal.
Tillamook sharp cheddar is the very best cheese I have ever eaten. When I was a child, my daddy would make me midnight sandwiches of thinly sliced Tillamook and jelly on bread. Pretty soon everybody else in the household would hear the stirring in the kitchen and we'd be joined by my mother and grandmother for a late night snack. Fond memories!
I should mention that I cannot get Tillamook in Wisconsin. More's the pity!
I think I will help them out by boycotting their product for caving to thugs.
Too bad, it's good cheese and I know I will pay more for a comparable product when I find one.
So9
I must point out that these envirowackos are arguing that the scientists are biased, that the controversy that was caused by their PR campaign is somehow legitimate, and that since there is such a controversy, the dairy must ignore the (suspicious & probably evil) scientists and admit that rBST is something they don't want to be associated with.
It's exactly the same argument and strategy that the neo-creationists in the Intelligent Design movement are trying to do WRT teaching evolution in the schools.
(Sniff, sniff!) Do I catch a whiff of Alar?
I had forgotten about the daminozide affair. Certainly seems comparable in tactics. Hopefully, the internet can start to offset the inflammatory statements made by the activists and passed on by the MSM. Sciencelite is not something you want to live by.
It's a shame. Science education is so lacking in our country that many people cannot tell the difference between alarmist propaganda and scientific information. Too many gravitate towards the alarmists because of pure emotionalism--even an excited scientist looks fairly calm and sedate--as if it's a case of the more wild the rant, the more genuine the information.
Is this a branch of the group funded by PETA...
Amen to that!
The Alar scare was just that, a carefully orchestrated scare, based on half truths and contrived 'studies', and this sounds like more of the same.
I like my Tillamook, but this will just drive the price up, and the supply down, meaning I'll buy something else. Maybe New York's Heluva Good Cheese, or something from Wisconsin.
I'll take my science straight, though my faith may disagree on interpretation or details. Render unto Science those things which belong to Science; and, unto God that which are God's.
Best damn cheese out there...will buy it even if its killing me...er...uh....nevermind.
I live in Oregon and when I travel to other parts of the country I take large blocks of Tillamook Cheese, all kinds, along with me as gifts to my hosts. It's available elsewhere, of course, but not everywhere, and in any case is always welcomed. I really love it! And I'm confident Tillamook would never do anything to its cheeses that is unhealthy!
We don't buy KFC because they totally caved when they ran those "Kentucky Fried Chicken is a good low-carb food" ads & some anti-Atkins doofuses (was it Physicians for Responsible Medicine?) whined about it.
I guess we won't be buying Tillamook anymore. Oh well. Just don't tell me Safeway or Fred Meyer/Kroger caved in as well - I can't live without Safeway's sugar-free yogurt & Freddy's cottage cheese!
BTTT!!!!!!!
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