Could Wal-Mart Cause the End of Growth Hormones in Milk?

April 10, 2008

From Dr. Mercola...

Could Wal-Mart Cause the End of Growth Hormones in

Milk?

Wal-Mart, the largest grocery retailer in the

United States, has announced that its store brand milk will now come

exclusively from cows not treated with artificial growth hormones. The

move will likely send a powerful signal to food manufacturers about the

growing mainstream demand for healthier food products.

Ronnie Cummins, director of the Organic Consumers Association, says,

" It's reached the tipping point ... Even Wal-Mart's customers are

demanding milk free from genetically engineered hormones. "

The Kroger grocery chain began selling only hormone-free milk a month

ago. Safeway has switched its in-store brands to hormone-free milk,

though it also sells other brands produced from cows given the hormone.

Starbucks recently began using only hormone-free milk in its stores as

well.

Sources:

The Globe and Mail March 22, 2008

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Wal-Mart is not only the largest grocery retailer in the United States,

it’s the largest

organic retailer as well. Because of this, they also have the most

organic shoppers, and Wal-Mart wants to keep these shoppers coming into

their stores.

And so, you have their removal of recombinant bovine somatotropin, or

rBGH, from their milk. The decision-makers at Wal-Mart are well aware of

the

steady stream of dairies who are eliminating

Monsanto’s dangerous hormone from their milk. They’re also aware that

many consumers are boycotting the hormone as well. And if there’s one

thing Wal-Mart will listen to, it’s dollars and cents, and keeping rBGH

in their milk was threatening some of theirs.

So while this may not have been an altruistic move on Wal-Mart’s part, it

is still a positive one. And because Wal-Mart is so giant, this decision

could very well push rBGH, which is already on thin ice in the United

States, off the radar entirely.

Yet, rBGH-Free Milk is STILL Not Healthy

If you HAD to drink pasteurized milk, and you could choose between one

WITH rBGH, and one WITHOUT it, the one without would certainly be

preferable.

Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration maintains that milk with

the hormone is identical to milk without it, scientists such as Dr.

Michael Hansen from the Consumers Union and Dr. Samuel Epstein from the

Cancer Prevention Coalition feel otherwise.

According to these two experts, milk from rBGH-injected cows contains

substantially higher amounts of a potent cancer tumor promoter called

IGF-1, and despite evidence that rBGH milk contains higher levels of pus,

bacteria, and antibiotics, the FDA gave the hormone its seal of approval,

with no real pre-market safety testing required.

So you are clearly better off avoiding this hormone.

Yet, the real question isn’t whether to drink milk with or without rBGH,

it’s whether to drink milk pasteurized or raw. And there is really no

question about this:

the ONLY way that milk should be consumed is if it’s raw.

The funny thing is, there never used to be such a thing as “raw” milk.

That would be like saying, “I want some raw lettuce” or a “raw orange.”

It wasn’t until the early 1900s that pasteurization was invented, and

prior to that, ALL milk was raw.

Well, just as the pot is boiling over rBGH in milk, the issue over

whether raw milk should be made widely available is also heating up. And

I am hopeful that one day soon the voices of the public will prompt some

changes in that arena, like it did for rBGH.

So while Wal-Mart’s decision to stop carrying rBGH milk is a small step

in the right direction, I’ll save my applause until Wal-Mart announces

that they are now stocking their shelves with high-quality RAW

milk.

You May Want to Rethink Shopping

at Wal-Mart Anyway

Before we pat Wal-Mart on the back too much,

let’s all remember that this mega-corporation is not only the “king of

low prices,” it’s the

king of predatory business practices as well. And while I do admire

their organizational structure, I do not set foot in Wal-Mart stores

because of their

abusive business practices and the way they are helping to

degrade organic food standards.

For example, Penn State University researchers estimate some 20,000

American families have dropped below the poverty level due to the

astounding growth of Wal-Mart between 1987 and 1998. And in counties

where Wal-Mart stores are located, more than 15 percent of families

depend on food stamps, compared to the national norm of 8 percent.

You can find out more details on the perils of the growth of Wal-Mart by

watching

"

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.”

When you do, you may come to the same conclusion I did many years ago,

which is that

local farmers

and food coops will always be a better place to buy your food than

any giant superstore like Wal-Mart.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/04/10/could-wal-mart-cause-the-end-of-growth-hormones-in-milk.aspx

April 10, 2008

Soooo, Wal-Mart is putting health above the dollar? WoW! Who would have thought?

I am not a chemist and have no way to test their milk (if I was even to buy any).

I guess I would just have to take their word. All the same, tests can be changed to say what ever you want them to say. The majority of the sheeple will believe what they are told and the ones that don't are not sheep at all.

It is a good story and may, in fact be true, I will go my own way thank you.

Kenneth T

Maybe this is done to get away from remembering that so many Wal-Mart product come from over seas instead of being made right here in the USA.