Under pressure from supermarket chains and their customers, California cows are going drug-free.
The giant Central Valley dairy co-op that produces 4 of every 10 glasses of milk drunk by Californians is phasing out the use of a synthetic bovine growth hormone that increases how much milk cows produce.
Despite evidence that the rBST hormone doesn't harm humans, California Dairies Inc. said its biggest customers such as Vons and Safeway didn't want it in the cows. The co-op also supplies brands such as Foster Farms, Knudsen Farms and Producers Dairy.
The demand for milk from these hormone-free cows is part of a nationwide consumer swing toward products that are either labeled organic or are perceived to be more natural. "That's a good decision as far as I'm concerned," said David Callahan, a self-employed artist from Eagle Rock who was shopping in Glendale. "The milk I buy is always free of hormones and preferably is organic. It's a big issue with me."
The dairy co-op has to comply if it wants to keep its customers, Chief Executive Richard Cotta said. "Demand for this milk has exceeded our ability to supply it." The phaseout of the hormone made by Monsanto Co., the St. Louis-based chemical giant, will be in effect Aug. 1.
Starbucks, one of the nation's largest sellers of milk, has stopped using milk from cows injected with the hormone from more than a third of its establishments and plans to gradually increase that to at least half of its U.S. company-operated coffeehouses.
Other large players in the dairy industry such as Oregon's Tillamook County Creamery Assn. and Dean Foods Co. are also winding down its use.
Shoppers at the Smart & Final on Verdugo Road in Glendale on Wednesday generally voiced concern about whether milk from cows injected with the hormone was a threat to their health. "I'm interested in my health," said Mike Metzler, a Glendale publisher. "I never buy milk with bovine growth hormone in it."
Food safety advocates and academics say there is no scientific evidence that milk from cows injected with the compound is any different from that of heifers free of the hormone. "There has been no real evidence of a health impact from milk from cows treated with the hormone," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington.
