Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: pleased

Safe Milk for Schools!

I'm delighted by this victory which allows schools to source milk that is organic or rBGH-Free.  Please pass the word to anyone you know with school-age children, and encourage schools to serve wholesome milk to students.  Young people are especially vulnerable to contaminants in foods and beverages; hormones and hormone-like substances in the diet have been linked to sex/gender development disorders.  Organic and rBGH-Free milk helps avoid such problems.


Great news! We just won our campaign to make sure schools can source organic milk or rBGH-Free milk! We've been working over the last year to pressure Congress and the USDA to make it clear that schools can purchase better milk for their students. The USDA got the message and has made it clear schools have the choice. Help us spread the word so all schools know they can serve better milk!

Thanks to folks like you who contacted your members of Congress, participated in our School Milk Days of Action, and contacted your local schools, our nation's schools will not become the dumping ground for milk produced with artificial growth hormones. Here are a few highlights from our School Milk Campaign:

- Over 30,000 petition signatures were delivered to Congress
- School Milk Campaign activists made over 2,000 calls to Congress
- Hundreds of schools across the country were contacted about their milk, directly influencing three schools to go rBGH-Free
-Our Healthy School Milk or Bust road trip hit seven key states, raising visibility of this issue with the media, consumers and congressional staff

Now that it's clear schools can buy organic milk or milk that's produced without artificial hormones, we need to make sure schools know they have this choice. Can you tell your friends and family the great news, and ask them to spread the word?

We've been working to make sure that schools have the opportunity to purchase organic milk and milk that's free of artificial growth hormones because of the serious health concerns associated with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). The artificial hormones are injected into cows to make them produce more milk, which can cause health problems for the cows, and may be linked to cancer in humans. We're proud that schools will now have the clear choice to offer milk that's produced without artificial growth hormones. Please help us spread the word.

Thanks for taking action,
Sarah Alexander, Senior Food Organizer
Food & Water Watch
goodfood@fwwatch.org

Tags: activism, education, food, politics
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  • 3 comments
kestrels_nest

kestrels_nest

December 10 2009, 01:48:50 UTC 11 years ago

The remaining barrier will be cost, pure and simple. Good milk costs more, and school district budgets have been slashed beyond the bone.
ysabetwordsmith

Well...

ysabetwordsmith

December 10 2009, 18:16:53 UTC 11 years ago

... then it comes down to, which is more expensive: feeding children wholesome food to begin with, or fixing the many medical problems (hyperactivity, mood disorders, extremely early puberty, infertility, etc.) that result from contaminated diet.

If you want something to work, you have to fund it properly. Undercutting the schools destroys the future, in which most of us will have to live.
kestrels_nest

Re: Well...

kestrels_nest

December 10 2009, 18:41:55 UTC 11 years ago

Dearheart, you're preaching to the choir here. Not only is it just plain common sense, but study after study has shown that the choice isn't whether to spend the money, but when and on what - now, on schools and food and literacy programs and things like Head Start, or later, on prisons and welfare and medical costs. Failing to fund schools is ruinously short-sighted (like failing to make medical care universally available), but we've become a culture that clutches our pennies without regard for the millions of dollars it will cost us later. I was just pointing out what response an effort to get schools to use higher quality milk would get.