Biotech backers have been fighting back, arguing that artificial hormones help cows produce more milk, do not create health problems for the animals or humans and argue that labels making a distinction needlessly confuse consumers when there is no discernible difference in products derived from cows that receive the hormones and those that do not.
"We simply want labels to not be misleading," said Kansas Agriculture Department spokeswoman Lisa Taylor.
Apparently, Lisa Taylor is trying out for her new career as a stand-up comedian.
If a dairy chooses to not inject their cows with artificial growth hormones, and inform their customers of that fact...what could possibly be "misleading" about that?
It seems that in Kansas, there is now a "free market" for dairies who choose to produce their milk and other products using a substance that people overwhelmingly reject when given the choice...and a strong-armed state-sponsored attack on small dairies who do things the right way, who now will not even be allowed to state simple facts on the labels of their products.
I grew up in Northern New Jersey. Back there, certain businesses were sometimes given favorable edges over their competition. We always knew why, and it was always obvious who was responsible.
But the cynic in me must ask - why is it that waste hauling contractors in New Jersey end up as caricatures of organized crime and political corruption in pop culture and cable sitcoms; while midwestern chemical companies were able to infiltrate themselves into both parties as respectable business institutions? |
