This is not a lactose diegestive problem like some say they get. The milk is past my digestive system and the hormones are in my blood overloading my kidneys. MY opinion, the agriculture industry is getting way out of hand with chemical and hormone enhancment programs just for performance sake, BUT not for our health sake!

My mother is a breast cancer survivor. All of her cancer cells had hormone receptors. That means that hormones helped the cancer and made it thrive.

To me it is simple math. I am at risk for a cancer that feeds on hormones. I should not ingest extra hormones. Not in milk, not in meat, not in pills.

Today the idea that added hormones in milk affects cancer is discounted. But it was just a few years ago that we were told that Hormone Replacement Therapy was not a risk.

Research Michael Taylor and rBST. You can google Michael Taylor and Monsanto revolving door FDA to see what I mean. He was an attorney for Monsanto, left to work for FDA (in a policy positon that was specially created for him) while the hormone was being approved; then he came back to Monsanto as a VP. I don't believe anything FDA says about rbST having read this.

So you farmers, do you deny what Monsanto has even admitted in that rbST is bad for the cows? They cite lameness, mastitis and reproductive issues as problems (as do other dairy farmers who have used rbST and stopped). So you are producing milk that people are consuming from sick animals? Don't you think that might have health consequences? Additionally, isn't there a milk surplus in this nation? You speak about the stores getting more money for the non-synthetic hormone brands (which in Hawaii are maybe a dollar more than milk from synthetic hormone treated animals), but don't farmers get paid based on the amount of milk they produce? Correct me if I am wrong, but is there a milk shortage? I read that there is a huge stockpile of powdered milk in the US from overproduction. So why hurt the animals and deny consumers what they want to make more milk that we just don't need? $$ You guessed it...Everyone has an agenda in this issue. Like I said, I read somewhere that farmers get paid based on the amount of milk they sell, not the quality. Is this inaccurate? I support farmers who give consumers what they want regardless of why they want it. If consumers want to avoid a product made by a company with a reputation of polluting the earth, bribing government officials and creating Agent Orange, they should damn well be able to.

I am still waiting for someone to show some kind of research like a human clinical trial or any kind of truly independent study to prove this product is safe. If it is, then why do the EU and Canada ban the use of rbST? Some say the milk is exactly the same except that it has that little "r" in front of the name. Why is the r there? Because synthetic BST is not natural BST.

Google Samuel Epstein for more on this.

Hydrogenated vegetable oil as Crisco appeared on the market in 1911. I remember growing up in the 1980s and being bombarded with advertising and the media promoting margarine as healthier than butter. A lot of people were skipping butter and using margarine to prevent heart disease. Some people stuck with what was natural.

The National Academy of Sciences published in 2002 a review of research showing that trans fatty acids are more harmful than saturated fatty acids.

Now based on science, we're doing the complete opposite, requiring labeling, some places banning trans fats, and manufacturers changing their product formulas to remove trans fats.

Now if you have been using hydrogenated vegetable oils all your life to ward off heart disease, or just eating it like everyone in this country all along because it was everywhere, now you know that all of that actually went into damaging your heart more. The wait-till-the-link-is-proven strategy just doesn't work to prevent potential harm from newly invented substances and processes. If the link is later demonstrated, you can't undo the margarine you ate for 50 years or the milk you already drank.

Given the plethora of examples that unfold like this, is it any surprise that people don't believe loosely cited "science", and just because a doctor says so? What were doctors and science saying in the 1980s during the margarine craze?

Do company executives and employees, doctors, and scientists who convincingly recommended margarine over butter ever examine what went on within themselves and within their profession to cause such yo-yo science?

Do you know what the next 100 years of science will reveal?

I will worry and start buying only organic milk the day when I'm confirmed & convinced that the quality difference between the two versions is like the difference between buying some stuff in some store and buying a dolce & gabbana.

I'm not against rBST although I love to have a cow in future not for milking purposes but as my friend. My wildest dream is to have a baby elephant(it's not gonna remain baby forever). I can imagine how much land I would need to have it. Probably I'lI have to move to forest!

It's easy to raise a human kid but hard to raise animals. We have to understand them and do the needful. We had a german shepherd. We have a cat, had a rabbit for some time(none were caged). So I do understand what it's to have animals and raise them. It's lot of responsibility!!!!!!

As Mark mentioned, milk is one food that is highly regulated and under constant scrutiny. I am a health and fitness freak, so people no need to freak out over milk.

Yes, we are not calf to drink cow's milk in gallons everyday. Unit is very important. Drink 2/3 cups(depending on the activity level) if people are adequately eating fruits & vegetables.

Osteoporosis is on the increase. According to WHO, the daily calcium intake is around 500mg but in US it's almost the double. The reason is, here in US, people consume proteins(through meat products than whole grains and the like) in excess. Urea(waste and excreted through the kidneys) is a natural product of protein metabolism. But uric acid can also build up in the body. Excess protein can stimulate the loss of calcium through urine. I have seen this even in vegetarians who keep complaining about knee problems. I can understand if women after forties complain, they lose lot of calcium!. Men, with a torpedo of testosterone and other stuff), complaining about knee in their forties, is madness.

Bottomline: Balance is the key. Reduce meat(produces acidity in the body as it's mainly protein),increase fruits and vegetables(most are alkaline), include grains(also produces some acidity) . Enjoy food but don't forget to do exercise.

BTW, the study on violence in affected men, found a gene located on the long arm of X(female sex chromosome) and not cow's milk. It was cool to read one type of Indian lentil namely mung bean nuclease is used as an enzyme in the recombinant DNA technology.

Common sense is so uncommon, says Voltaire. If I write the way Colbert talks, I know Sanjayji will not post the article. So I have to restrict myself here. May be I should give a coupon for 1 gallon rBST milk(per person and not per post) to all the people here for sharing information generously and also making me laugh. Thanks Sanjay and everybody. Keep yourself in physical and mental fitness. the only way to enjoy life to the fullest.

If dairy farming is so easy, why are more people doing it??

Science doesn't think because it's matter! It's people who think and study science. If matter starts thinking, and hence moving & reacting, there will be tsunamis in everybody's house.

Dairy farmers, please inform others(who are against rBST) how much it costs to buy a cow, so that they can buy it , milk their own cow and stop cribbing.

Einstein: Only two things are infinite:Universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former.