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Got Chemicals in Your Milk?

Eileen Gunn

This is because conventional milk products often come from cows that have been given synthetic hormones and a bevy of antibiotics. But opting for untainted organic products can mean paying a steep premium for your milk, yogurt or American-cheese singles.

Luckily things are starting to change.

Acknowledging consumer wariness, major food companies and grocery stores are steadily moving toward milk products that lack these troublesome chemicals.

The flap over hormones in milk began in the early 1990s, when Monsanto(MON Quote - Cramer on MON - Stock Picks) won FDA approval for rBGH, a synthetic growth hormone made via a process that involves gene splicing. You can read all about the controversy at sustainable table and the Organic Consumers Association.

The artificial hormone has been linked to cancer and to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria . But the FDA is so far standing firm behind its approval of it.

In a New York Times op-ed last June, FDA alumnus Henry I. Miller touted Monsanto's product as the answer to rising milk and corn prices and to farm-related environmental issues by pointing out that it allows cows to produce more milk while eating less and using less farmland.

Common sense suggests that such a phenomenon probably isn't good for the cows over the long term. And how healthy can milk be if it comes from overworked, stressed-out animals?

Miller goes to great lengths to hammer home his point that the hormone "poses no risk to human health."

But safe and free of side effects are two very different things -- a point Miller handily refuses to acknowledge. Any time we introduce man-made chemicals to our bodies, or the food chain, there are collateral effects. Consumers should be informed and able to weigh the risks and benefits before they opt to ingest (or even potentially ingest) such compounds.

I became wary of conventional dairy two years ago, after reading in the New York Times about a link between hormones in dairy foods and the rising rate of twins in the U.S. As an avid consumer of milk and cheese and a woman of child-bearing age, I was pretty sure I wanted to avoid this particular side effect.

I began to shop organic, but was aghast when I headed to the dairy aisle and discovered that organic milk cost at least double what the regular stuff does.

Luckily, I'm not alone in my discomfort over industrial dairy. Sales of organic milk have been rising in recent years, even as overall consumption of milk remains flat, according to a USDA report. The report notes that milk and yogurt are often the first organic foods that consumers try.

The food industry has caught on to this preference and is giving consumers more choices at varying price points.

In addition to being chemical-free, organic milk comes from cows that eat organic feed and spend time outside with access to grazing pasture. But as organic milk has become widely available -- Wal-Mart (WMT Quote - Cramer on WMT - Stock Picks)now sells it -- adherence to the spirit of these requirements apparently varies. The Cornucopia Institute did a survey of organic brands not long ago and rated them on a scale of one to five cows for how well their suppliers execute the USDA's organic standards.

A potential difference in quality is important because there is a wide price range within the high-end organic category. At a local supermarket in Brooklyn prices soared from $3.99 per half gallon for Organic Valley, which garners four cows from Cornucopia, to $5.29 for Dean Foods' Horizon label, which received only one cow. The store's one brand of conventional milk cost $1.89 for a half gallon. In another store, a brick of Organic Valley organic cheddar cheese cost double its counterpart from Kraft(KFT Quote - Cramer on KFT - Stock Picks).

If you're willing to give all organic labels the benefit of the doubt, stores like Safeway(SWY Quote - Cramer on SWY - Stock Picks), Whole Foods (WFMI Quote - Cramer on WFMI - Stock Picks)and Costco(COST Quote - Cramer on COST - Stock Picks) stock private label dairy products that carry much narrower premiums. But several of them rate only one or two cows for not responding to Cornucopia's questions.

And if you're more concerned with your own health than with the happiness and comfort of a cow herd, you can skip the organic option altogether and just look for milk, cheese or yogurt that are labeled hormone-free. Trader Joe's sells a full line of them.

Dean Foods(DF Quote - Cramer on DF - Stock Picks) aims to have all of its many regional milk brands rBGH-free by the end of this quarter, according to a spokesperson, but it doesn't always label them as such. Kroger(KR Quote - Cramer on KR - Stock Picks) promised last August to transition to hormone free milk supplies for its several supermarket chains by early this year.

Starbucks(SBUX Quote - Cramer on SBUX - Stock Picks) sources its milk, whipped cream and half and half from dairies that are rBGH free and Chipotle Grill (CMG Quote - Cramer on CMG - Stock Picks)does the same with its cheese and sour cream.

Meanwhile, Crain's Chicago Business reported in January that Kraft Foods is launching a new line of American cheese singles that will be free of synthetic hormones.

One incentive Kraft has for the move is that foods with a hormone-free label often carry higher prices than other brands, though they aren't nearly as expensive as organic foods. In my local grocery, Farmland Dairy , which delivers hormone-free milk to the New York City area, costs $2.19 for a half gallon, about 30 cents more than other milk.

These moves by big companies are gradually pushing Monsanto's hormone out of the food supply -- less than 20% of milk now comes from hormone-treated cows.

I'm confident Uncle Sam will sooner or later catch up with consumer sentiment and curtail the use of hormones in dairy cows, as it has with poultry and pigs. In the mean time, I'm glad that clear labeling and more options allow me to make an informed choice about just what goes into my moo juice and what gets left out.