Cabot Says No More Growth Hormones in its Milk

Cheese sales on the line, makers of Cabot brand of cheeses, cooperative owner Agri-Mark has informed its member farmers that if they want to continue using bovine somatotropin to boost production their milk they will have to go to sell their milk to the New York region. Trucking the milk that distance will increase the costs of production so much that the writing is on the wall, making the use of rbST unprofitable.

“I’d say most have seen it coming for quite a while, and feel if it impacts everybody the same way they can accept it," said Bob Wellington, senior vice president of Agri-Mark, the largest producer cooperative in New England. "Some will wait right up to the very end, because they believe it makes them money."

The author suggests that the New England dairy industry will be “rbST-free” by the end of summer 2009.