Pact Allows Anti-Hormone Labels on Ben & Jerry’s

Connoisseurs of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream won’t have to wonder any longer whether it’s made from milk from cows treated with artificial growth hormones.

A settlement announced Thursday between the state of Illinois and a coalition of organic food companies, including the Vermont ice cream maker, means that in the future, one glance at the label on a pint of Cherry Garcia or Chunky Monkey will tell you whether the cows that produced the milk it was made from are hormone-free.

Under terms of the settlement, manufacturers of ice cream, yogurt and other dairy products that don’t use the controversial recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) can say so on their labels. The decision is expected to allow them to distribute these anti-hormone labels nationally, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. executives said.

Consumer groups estimate that about 5% of dairy farmers inject the hormone into some of their cows.

Illinois--along with Hawaii, Nevada and Oklahoma--have forbidden these labels. Illinois’ 1994 decision to do so basically stopped anti-rBGH labeling across the country because it is not feasible for companies such as Ben & Jerry’s to label their products differently for individual markets. Dairies haven’t typically run into the same problem because their products are mostly distributed locally; several milk producers include anti-hormone labels on their cartons.

In the settlement, the parties agreed on compromise language for the new labels. Ben & Jerry’s originally wanted to say their products were “rBGH free,” but Illinois officials protested that was impossible to prove and implied that milk from treated cows was harmful.

The agreed-upon label reads: “We oppose recombinant bovine growth hormone. The family farmers who supply our milk and cream pledge not to treat their cows with rBGH. The FDA has said no significant difference has been shown and no test can now distinguish between milk from rBGH-treated and untreated cows.”

Additionally, some of Ben & Jerry’s products include “chunks”--such as the chocolate pieces in Cherry Garcia--that contain small amounts of dairy ingredients. Their labels will include the further statement: “Not all the suppliers of our other ingredients can promise that the milk they use comes from untreated cows.”

Ben & Jerry’s filed suit last year in federal court against the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago, charging that their prohibition on voluntary anti-hormone labeling violated the company’s 1st Amendment right to inform their customers of their products’ content. Chicago officials also agreed to Thursday’s settlement.

Sold by Monsanto Co. of St. Louis, rBGH is produced in the cow’s pituitary gland but can be injected as a supplement to increase milk production by as much as 20%. It was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1993.