Ice Cream Giant to Drop Milk with Monsanto’s rBST Growth Hormones
In the face of a health-conscious collective, ice cream giant Breyers has decided to stop using milk from cows treated with the controversial, artificial growth hormone rBST. This news makes it even more apparent that a food awakening is happening as consumers demand additive-free food.
In addition to sourcing non-rBST milk, Unilever-owned Breyers will only purchase vanilla that is certified by the Rainforest Alliance, ensuring it meets the standards of the Sustainable Agriculture Network and the Forest Stewardship Council.
While cows naturally produce bovine somatotropin (BST) in the pituitary glands, this artificial hormone used in much of the nations milk is created by biotech companies like Monsanto. It is created using a genetically engineered E. coli bacteria, which has been banned in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel, and the European Union.
“Breyers has a long-standing history of offering frozen treats with high-quality ingredients that moms feel good about,” said Alessandra Bellini, vice president of brand development at Unilever North America. “These industry-leading changes are the latest in our commitment to do right by parents and the environment.”
Surprisingly, unlike other health shifts, this move will come in the near future – by March of 2015.
Also owned by Unilever, the other popular ice cream maker known as Ben & Jerry’s has already been rBST-free for many years, and has even more recently committed to going GMO-free.
Read: 6 GMO-Loaded Food Brands to Avoid Buying
Breyers’ parent company Unilever plans to have other brands, including Fruttare, Good Humor, Klondike, Magnum and Popsicle, follow suit in the next few years in an attempt to be the go-to source for hormone-free milk.
A Little About Monsanto’s rBGH
Much of our nation’s milk has come from cows injected with a genetically engineered growth hormone for the past 20 years, though it was never labeled, so most of us had no idea. The first genetically engineered product brought to market, RBGH, has dominated the milk market just about since the FDA approved it in 1993.
The hormone is injected into cows every two weeks to boost their hormonal activity, causing them to produce an additional 10 to 15% more milk, or about one extra gallon each day. Within 4 years of its introduction, about one-third of the nation’s cows were in herds being treated with this growth hormone.
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Unilever, owner of Ben & Jerry’s, donated $467,000 to help defeat Prop 37 in California, but sat out the battle over I-522 in Washington. Unilever is still a member of the Grocery’s Manufacturer Association, though. The company also recently picked a legal fight with a small vegan company because they were competing too vigorously with Unilever’s Hellmann’s mayonnaise. Imagine that – consumers purchasing foods that don’t cause health issues!
Thank-you Breyers. Please make all your ingredients “Organic”.
If you’re so smart, how come you don’t know that Monsanto hasn’t made this product since 2008.
are you addressing your comment to breyers or penelope? if you’re so smart that you know that monsanto hasn’t made the product since 2008, then maybe you should tell breyers!
IS rBST safe? That depends on who you ask. Companies like Monsanto, the
original producer of Posilac (an rBST) product had to reluctantly put
safety warnings on the sides of their packages—admitting that it has
about 20 “toxic effects” on the cows. Monsanto sold the product to Eli Lilly in 2008 for 300 Million dollars..BUT THE MONSANTO FACTORY STILL MAKES THE INJECTABLE FORM OF THE DRUG..
Wonder if this is where Cancer Cells get turned on by the Body of humans? My wife ate a lot of Ice Cream !/2 gallon per week. Didn’t smoke or drink. hen when she turned 55 she got a real specialized Cancer.. called a Sarcoma.. which grew on top of her lung then Metz to other parts of her body… T Cancer is nothing but a cell or Collection of cells that refuse to die. Myself, I never ate Ice Cream as much as she did.. my issue is diabetes class 2. . Still don’t know what caused my wife to get this but Breyers , Turkey Hill were the brands she ate the most of. Glad the parent company of Breyers- Unilever is taking some action…
Wow dude that’s groundbreaking, where did you get your medical degree? John Hopkins? You better publish those data ASAP.
It really does make you take seriously what goes into your body! We think we are eating healthy, but more and more, we realize that many of our choices are anything but. And we can’t rely on eating like many of our grandparents did. Due to mass production and fiddling with animal growth, beef/chicken/milk etc is completely different than it was 50 or 60 years ago. We are being peddled garbage and being told it’s “healthy”. I’m trying to eat clean and significantly reduce animal product consumption…right now I’m about 85% plant-based. We really are what we eat!
“Imagine that- consumer’s actually possessing a college education level understanding of biology and physiology and being able to read and interpret methods and graphs instead of being duped into believing something is harmful because they read it on a website!” Is more like it, brotha.
Monsanto does not make rbst if you got that wrong what else is wrong ?
And only 10 to 15% of cows are supplemented in US, also the band use in other countries has nothing to do with safety its supply management reasons.
MONSANTO DOES MAKE IT.. BUT THEY SOLD THE RIGHTS & PRODUCT TO ELI LILLY IN 2008.. NOW STFU..
https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/why-monsanto-doesnt-want-you-know-about-those-hormones-your-dairy