Francois, I certainly agree that organic feed lot dairies are no better than their non-organic counterparts. I don't patronize them either.
However, I am afraid I must disagree with you on the topic of chemicals in milk. Milk from BGH-injected cows is more likely to contain dangerous residues of the more than 80 different drugs, many of them antibiotics, used as daily maintenance and to treat sick cows. The FDA and the dairy industry claim that they test milk for drug contamination. But this testing is wholly inadequate. They only look for a few of the scores of drugs actually administered to dairy cows. Furthermore, the FDA allows drug-contaminated milk to be sold as long as the residues are at a “safe” level. These so-called “safe” levels have been shown to cause increases in drug resistant strains of virulent diseases. So for example, if you drank milk that had residues of eurythymicin in it, then bacteria in your stomach could pick up resistance to that eurythymicin so that if you came down with an illness you wouldn't be able to use eurythymicin to treat it. From infancy to adulthood, people are dosed with antibiotic residues that contaminate baby formula, milk, cheese, and other dairy products.
And as for bovine growth hormone (which is still used extensively in America):
Monsanto is the giant chemical company which sells the synthetic hormone under the brand name Posilac. Monsanto has consistently rejected the concerns of scientists around the world. It's the company position that milk produced by injecting cows with Prosilac is safe, despite scientific studies which show the milk we're getting from BGH-treated cows has a higher level of IGF-1. IGF-1 is a hormone almost identical to human growth hormone. At normal levels it is the hormone responsible for normal human growth. At higher levels it is believed to promote cancer.
Keep in mind that:
Monsanto is the same company that convinced the government that PCB’s were safe. Those were put inside electrical conductors and florescent light ballasts for years until researchers in Japan and Sweden showed serious hazards to human health and the environment. And you've heard of Agent Orange, 2-4-5-T, the defoliant that the United States used in Vietnam? Monsanto convinced the government it, too, was safe. It was later proven to be extremely harmful to humans, and a government investigator found what she said was "a clear pattern of fraudulent content in Monsanto's research" which led to approval.
In the case of BGH, Monsanto was required to promptly report all complaints from farmers. In the Florida study area, dairyman Charles Knight, among others, says he was complaining loud and clear that Posilac was decimating his herd with serious udder infections and hoof and hock and tumor problems. He had to replace 75% of his herd. But four months later he found the company had not passed a one of his complaints to the FDA as required.
Yada, yada, yada... Sorry about the rant but I am simply against endangering the worlds food supply in the name of increased profits for agribusiness.
