As I shopped and progressed through my week of eating whatever I wanted from Wal-Mart, I had a few thoughts on sustainability and economies of scale. The first thing that struck me was that I had choices. There were offerings of organic produce and non-organic produce. In the case of the apples, there were choices to buy Washington apples and out of state apples. I was a little disappointed in the lack of signing on what was local or out of state or out of country. It wasn’t hard to look on the label, but most people I see shopping don’t take the time to do that.
I was pleasantly surprised, however, that my eggs were cheap and, according to the box, from Olympia (or “in state” for you non-Washingtonians). I cannot verify that the chickens were free range or raised in humane conditions. And unless the video footage on the documentaries I’ve watched was a complete set-up, the chickens were probably raised in very crowded, unsanitary conditions, being fed antibiotics to ward off disease and treated with growth hormones to increase available meat (for those going to the slaughterhouse). But the eggs were inexpensive and from Washington, and I felt good about them not traveling too far to reach me.
This brings me to the story of the chocolate milk I bought. It was produced by a Washington company (Darigold), and also happened to be the cheapest chocolate milk at Wal-Mart. This made me happy, and the chocolate milk was very tasty. As I scanned the box, I noticed an FDA label, which said something along the lines of, “The FDA has found no significant differences in milk from cows treated with rBST and cows not treated with rBST.” Darigold does not use rBST/rBGH (synthetic growth hormone for cows), which I think is nice because it’s not a chemical we’ve had decades of experience with. The acronym stands for recombinant bovine somatotropin or recombinant bovine growth hormone. It was only developed for use in 1994. It so happens that a massive biotech company, Monsanto, sued Oakhurst Dairy in Portland, OR for advertising milk produced without synthetic growth hormones. ( http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0708-10.htm )
Monsanto claimed such advertising was taking business away from their rBST buying customers (dairy farmers) and encouraging milk drinkers to do business with farms that don’t use synthetic growth hormones. People were voting with their dollars and buying milk without fake hormones. Anyway, Monsanto sued, and the FDA came to the conclusion (again, without decades of research) that companies who don’t use synthetic growth hormones should still put the label on their milk defending companies who purchase and use rBST. Pretty big victory for Monsanto. Not surprising though, since Monsanto has former employees who work in the FDA and USDA. They also provide millions of dollars to lobbyist groups and research universities (check Western Washington’s list of donors) who in turn, miraculously, produce scientific data supporting the use of big biotech companies’ products.
The above story is a good example of how big companies are able to leverage political influence to purchase more power for themselves. It’s happening in most other arenas and industries as well, of course. Because might makes right. Money buys votes, opinions and even “scientific data.” But you can vote with your wallets – personally, I’m waiting for more research about the long-term effects of synthetic growth hormones in my cows. Things like cancer take a long time to develop, so it seems a bit premature to say we are in the clear at this point. We only started using rBST in the mid-90’s. Do an internet search if you’re skeptical – it wasn’t too hard for me to find the information to back up my story, but don’t take my word for it!
Ultimately, I think, regardless of whether you shop at the farmer’s market, local store, or supermarket, sustainable eating comes down to choice. I hope that the big supermarkets will follow the lead of smaller stores and farmer’s markets by making local products more obvious and available, but the only thing I can control completely is what I buy. Vote with your dollars on what you want to see more of. Be proud of yourself for doing what you’re able to do.
Here’s one of several articles discussing synthetic growth hormones in our milk cows and a quote from the article below: http://www.grist.org/article/food-2010-10-06-court-rules-on-rbgh-free-milk
“The United States is the only developed nation to allow people to drink milk from cows given artificial growth hormone. All 27 countries of the European Union, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada have banned its use in milk destined for human consumption. [Update: Brazil does allow it.] In 2007, Monsanto, which created and manufactured Posilac, the most popular form of rBST, began encouraging its dairy-farmer customers to protest their rBGH-free competitors' labeling.”
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