Ben & Jerry’s in a Fight over Labeling

The ice cream maker has joined a national campaign to block efforts to restrict labeling products containing recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST.

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, one of the first companies to label its ice cream as free of a synthetic hormone, is protesting a move by some states to restrict such labeling.

The ice cream maker has joined a national campaign to block what critics say is an effort driven by Monsanto Co., which markets recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST, also known as recombinant bovine growth hormone, or rBGH.

The hormone, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to boost production in dairy cows in the early 1990s, was not approved in Canada, Japan or the European Union, largely out of concerns it may be harmful to animals.

A newly formed farmers’ group, backed by Monsanto, is pushing for labeling changes, saying the hormone-free labels imply that the milk is safer than other milk, when they say it’s not.

Read the full Associated Press story here.