TILLAMOOK, Ore.-Members of the Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA) have voted 2-1 to stick with a no-rBST policy that has been developed and approved by the organization's board of directors, the co-op says.
The full membership voted last month on whether or not to affirm the policy which had been unanimously approved by the board in May 2004. The policy requires that as of April 1 all milk producers delivering milk to TCCA's facilities (both in Boardman, Ore. and in Tillamook, Ore.) will certify that their milk is, and thereafter will be, from cows not supplemented with rBST.
The policy caused a bit of a struggle between Tillamook's management and Monsanto Corp., St. Louis, the makers of Posilac, the brand name of the synthetic growth hormone. Tillamook accused Monsanto of interfering with the co-op's internal decision-making process by contacting individual farm members. Monsanto countered that it simply supports the individual dairy farmer's right to make his or her own decisions about using Posilac.
