Monsanto Sues Maine Dairy for Labeling Milk

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GM seed and chemical giant, Monsanto, has filed suit against Oakhurst Dairy Inc. for engaging in "misleading and deceptive marketing practices" by carrying labels claiming that their milk is free of artificial growth hormones.

Monsanto claims the labels on milk produced by the small Maine dairy suggest that milk produced from cows treated with Monsanto's growth hormone, Prosilac, is not safe and is lower quality.

The FDA approved Prosilac, a growth hormone used to increase milk production, in 1994 and today the hormone is used in almost a third of America's nine million dairy cows.

Since Prosilac's introduction, consumer groups, organic farmers, and some scientists across the country have attacked the use of the artificial hormones, which are barred in Canada and the European Union.

These groups reflect concerns that the hormones are harmful to cows, that the hormones are transferred to the milk that consumers buy and that they could increase rates of cancer in humans.

Oakhurst Dairy and other New England dairies say that they simply responded to consumer demand for milk free of artificial growth hormones and labelled their natural milk products as such.

The labels on Oakhurst's milk cartons read: "Our farmers' pledge: no artificial growth hormones." Monsanto's suit against Oakhurst would prevent them from using the label.

"We don't feel we need to remove that label," said Stanley T. Bennett II, president of the family-owned company. "We ought to have the right to let people know what is and is not in our milk."

Ben & Jerry's Homemade, a Vermont ice cream producer, also carries a similar label promising that their product is free of artificial growth hormones. "We've been vocally opposed to bovine growth hormone for a long time," said Ben & Jerry's spokesman, Lee Holden.

Monsanto, however, is insisting that government officials force Oakhurst to change their labels and moderate their marketing practices. A Monsanto statement released after the suit was filed claims that "these misleading representations directly disparage Monsanto's Posilac bovine somatotropin product and the milk from cows supplemented with bovine somatotropin."

According to Monsanto, labels stating that milk is free of hormones are confusing and misleading to consumers and that there is no difference between cows given Posilac to increase milk production and cows who receive no artificial growth hormones.