[EDIT-June 12, 2009's entry was too difficult to edit for public viewing. So its being skipped.-LP-6/14/11]
(MySpace insisted on eating the beginning of what would have been my original post so somehow I fear that this one won’t have the same fiery spirit as before.)
Milk from cows treated with rBST (recombinant bovine somatotrophin (essentially a growth hormone)) is more environmentally friendly than milk from cows not being treated. Milk from organic cows is even worse for the environment. RBST makes cows give more milk. More milk means less cows which means less feed, less land, less manure. You may know that cows are methane machines. And methane is a green house gas, which apparently are bad for the environment (*rolls eyes*) so wouldn’t we want less cows? Think about it.
But, Leslie, you say to yourself, how can this be true? Why are you telling us this? We know your anti-environmental views and how you don’t believe in global warming (Its true, I don’t believe in it.).We’ve read your facebook status. What are you talking about?
Well, let me tell you. Here’s the deal-
RBST (recombinant bovine somatotrophin for the slow kids not catching on) is one of the most researched and tested drugs being given to animals today. There is no difference in the milk from cows being given rBST and cows that don’t get it. Read your milk carton label. If its from cows not being given rBST and it says so, it will say essentially the same of what I said above. Unless you’re in Ohio. Ohio has passed a law that says you can’t make such a label claim because they believe so strongly that there isn’t a difference. Meanwhile, they are also trying to pass a bill similar to Proposition 2 in California which banned battery cages for chickens and other confinement farming practices for swine and calves. OHIO! STOP BEING TWO FACED!
Anyway, there is no scientific evidence that rBST has any effect on human health. Like I said, its been researched since the early ‘80s for its use in cattle and has been used since like the mid-90s. In fact, rBST’s original promising use was in the ‘50s and ‘60s for injecting into midget children in hopes that they would grow to their full height. It didn’t work.
Also, rBST has no effect on a cow’s health either. Well, that’s at least what I am told. When like seven or eight years ago, when I was doing research on rBST for a paper, I did find that rBST increases the chances of double ovulation resulting in twins. Twinning in any species (except maybe goats/sheep and deer) increases the odds of a difficult birth and death in one or both twins and the dam. But it can occur naturally as well. Also, mastitis is an increased risk BUT it is increased to the degree that it would occur if the cow was naturally producing the same volume of milk. So essentially, I think the cow health issue is a moot point.
What have they been teaching us in uber-liberal Ithaca, New York? Well, I learned that cows today produce more methane than cows in 1944, the time when there were the most dairy cows in the US. BUT because each of these cows produce more milk more efficiently, on a per gallon basis, which is what we really should be looking at (the end product), today’s cows produce less methane. I have also learned that if one million of the like nine million cows in the US produced an extra ten pounds of milk daily (which is the average increase in milk production for cows on rBST), we would be able to decrease the environmental impact by 9%. What’s 9% you ask? 9% is 2.5 million tons less feed, 3 million tons less crap, enough fuel saved to heat 15700 households and would decrease the carbon footprint (I don’t even know what that is!) the equivalent of removing 400000 cars from the road or planting about 300 million trees. That should be enough for you.
But if its not, a small farm of about 150 milking cows (roughly the size of Foremost or even smaller) that was producing an extra ten pounds of milk per cow per day would require 245 tons less feed, 53 fewer acres of cropland, use 132000 gallons less water (that one’s for you Gabbi) and decrease the carbon footprint the same as taking 38 cars off the road annually or planting 28375 trees annually. Buying milk from cows treated with rBST would cut the average family of four’s footprint the same as planting 25 trees annually. What family is out there doing that? Maybe tree farming families. Anyway, I think the evidence is pretty clear.
And worse than milk from cows not treated with rBST is organic cows. Organic cows produce even less milk. They require more land because they have to graze and because the organic crops which make their feed are less efficient and produce less as well. Essentially, everyone that says that they think traditional commercial milk production is bad for the environment and use that as a reason to drink organic or rBST free milk, is WRONG!
Today, we went to an organic farm. I was willing to give it a chance because in theory, organic farming sounds good. The cows get to graze, no antibiotics are used decreasing the ever pesky problem of resistance (mostly doctors’ faults), etc. BUT there is a reason that veterinary medicine has progressed beyond witchcraft. That aside, I went to the farm this morning with an open mind. But when the farmer started telling us about all of the problems that he had when he was traditionally farming, it became clear that it was/had been a management issue. When asked simple questions such as average production, pregnancy rate, SCC and income over cost, he couldn’t come up with solid answers. It seemed that his answer was turning the cows out to pasture and not worrying about much else. It seemed like it was all one big hobby for him. We asked about medications for sick cows and they use a lot of homeopathic drugs. Someone asked about the withdrawal time that they use for treated cows. (Withdrawal time is the amount of time that an animal can’t enter the food chain for meat or milk is held out of the bulk tank and not sold because of possible drug residues.) They said that they don’t establish times because their treatments are all natural! WHOA! Wait a minute! These are herbal supplements that are not evaluated by the FDA for safety and efficacy. We don’t know withdrawal times because no one has done research because its all hocus pocus anyway. And now, these people are letting essentially untested drugs potentially go into the organic milk supply. That’s not cool. In 20 years, when everyone is wondering why they have cancer because their whole lives they’ve been drinking organic milk or eating organic foods, I’m telling you its going to be because of supplements given to cows all willy nilly because they are natural.
On the plus side, the cows did look happy in the pasture but this may have been because their barn was the worse place I have ever seen. The stalls were too small and not appropriately bedded or comfortable. There were minimal fans. The barn was dark. It’s a good thing the cows only have to spend a few hours a day in there. And another plus side is that we all got some Organic Valley chocolate milk. One of the guys was also advocating raw milk and someone said that he said that people that couldn’t drink normal milk could drink raw milk without the lactose intolerance problems (not something I was willing to risk) and that raw milk killed the bacteria. Umm…pretty sure that it doesn’t. Pretty sure that it could still have all sorts of things in it…Brucella, Listeria, ecoli, staph…some of those things are deadly and cause abortions, which is why pregnant women are told not to drink raw milk and to stay away from some soft cheeses.
Other things that have gone on this week included going to a milk processor and to a Kraft factory where they made cream cheese. Both places were pretty cool and we took home a lot of cream cheese. The Kraft factory was down the road from the vet clinic where the guy that played Charlie Bucket in the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory works. He’s now a dairy vet.
Last night, we had a BBQ at one of the professors houses. I drank way too much PBR but I think I did okay and didn’t make too much of a fool of myself.
All is going well and tonight, I think they may try to take me salsa dancing. But I said I would only go if I got hit on. There may be a Canada trip (it seems I'm the only one that has not been out of the country) and a NYC trip in the works.
[EDIT-Originally published to Blogger on June 14, 2011]
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