Many of the familiar arguments about rBST were being heard all over again in the Keystone State last month and farm organizations and dairy processors reacted the industry’s rejection of rBST as a viable tool, and its subsequent reverberations.

As reported in the November issue of Dairy Foods, Pennsylvania’s Department of Agriculture recently issued warnings to 16 milk marketers saying that their label messages regarding the exclusion of rBST were considered false and misleading. The department said it was preparing a ban on such messages, but Gov. Ed Rendell’s office later initiated a review of the decision. Originally scheduled for Jan. 1, enforcement of the new rules has been delayed at least a month.

In the interim, several dairy processes, petitioned against the action of the state agency. Among the most vocal was Todd Rutter, president of York-based Rutter’s Dairy.

“Certainly, consumers everywhere want more information, not less, about their food.,” Rutter said in a letter to the local media. “They want to make their own decisions as to the food products they serve to their families. They rely on trusted names such as Rutter’s to provide them with this information.

“We also believe it is our obligation to tell customers what’s in our milk—or in this case, what’s not in our milk. The state’s untenable position has only emboldened Rutter’s in this regard, prompting us to plan a series of very public activities designed to educate the community and our customers about artificial growth hormones and our strong stance against their use in our milk production, not to mention our right to say so on our labels.”

Rutters was also among a group of 65 dairy processors, consumer groups, and farmers who petitioned the state’s governor and general assembly regarding the issue, asking that dairy processors be allowed to provide rBST information to consumers through standard label messages.