Markets and superstores across the country offer consumers a variety of milk choices, but the UW-Madison community is left with only one.
With the organic food market so lively Wal-Mart hopes to expand into it and backlit by a UW-Madison report identifying Wisconsin as a principal source of organic dairy products, the flagship university of one of the most organically friendly cities in the United States has yet to dabble in the field of organic dairy.
While farmers scramble to supply the national demand for organic milk, Babcock Dairy Hall continues to use recombinant bovine somatotropin hormone in the milk and ice cream sold at on-campus eateries.
BST on campus
Bovine growth hormone, also referred to as BST, is a protein hormone that naturally occurs in all cows and varies depending on the cow's stage of lactation. Farmers use the hormone commercially to increase milk output.
Farmers who supplement the synthetic rBST form of the hormone to a cow can increase milk production by approximately 10 pounds of milk per day, said Nigel Cook, a UW-Madison clinical associate professor of veterinary medicine.
Since 2001, Babcock Dairy Institute has accepted milk from Madison-area providers that may supplement their cows with rBST.
Babcock prompted the switch from rBST-free because the quality of milk used for international research was starting to suffer.
""It became difficult for us to get quality milk,"" said Tom Blattner, director of the dairy plant at Babcock. ""There were not that many farms that were on that [rBST-free] program.""
Monsanto and the FDA say rBST is safe for humans, with no proven risk stemming from oral consumption.
Organic milk
""The organic sector is the fastest growing food sector in the United States,"" says a new report from a UW-Madison Program on Agricultural Technology Services. The same report identifies Wisconsin as the generator of one third of the nation's organic dairy products.
According to the USDA National Organic Program's regulations, ""animals raised on an organic operation must be fed organic feed and given access to the outdoors. They are given no antibiotics or growth hormones.""
The USDA makes no claims that organic milk is produced more safely or is more nutritious than conventionally produced product. UW-Madison Nutritional Sciences professor Susan Nitzke also confirmed the health benefits of eating organic foods are ""not definite or proven.""
However, some studies suggest a higher presence of omega-3 fatty acids, which may reduce risk of coronary heart disease, in organic milk.
Lynn Olson, co-operative services manager at the Willy Street Co-op, 1221 Williamson St, says it does provide at least one thing to her customers: security.
""Ever since the rBGH craze and media frenzy to educate people, folks were looking for a secure way to tell whether their milk had rBGH or not. This is the reason we see a lot of the same people buying organic milk,"" she said.
Students living the residence halls, however, are only given one dairy choice: Babcock, which potentially could contain milk from cows treated with rBST.
On-campus dining halls, carry-outs and ice cream carts have no labels indicating the potential use of hormones. As a result, ""people are ignorant,"" said John Peck, executive director of Family Farm Defenders.
""If consumers had the right to know, they would not want it,"" Peck said.
The problem is that consumers of Babcock products do not know what is in their food, he said.
Brian Burke, food services manager, said the dining halls have already started to provide organic beef patties and fruits. With enough feedback through comment cards, there is potential for more organic options to be available on campus.
