Walmart Discontinues rBGH Milk
Wal-Mart has announced that all the store-brand milk sold in both Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club in the US will now be from cows not treated with artificial growth hormones.
Roughly 18 percent of dairy cows in the United States are injected with rBGH.
Most cows are not treated with rBGH but the milk from many different cows is often mixed together before being packaged. This means that unless otherwise labeled, most milk sold in the US probably has rBGH in it.
Wal-Mart said that its decision came in response to rising consumer demand for hormone-free milk. Wal-Mart is the largest grocery retailer in the United States.
BGH has been criticized for damaging the health of cows. Concerns have also been increasing about the health impacts of drinking milk from rBGH-treated cows. The use of rBGH is banned in Australia, Canada, Europe and Japan. In the US rBGH has been approved for use since 1993.
