Victory! Cabot to Ban Bovine Growth Hormone!
January 28, 2009
Yes, the news is true. And, yes, my tongue is firmly in my cheek.
For those who don’t know and/or forgot (like I almost did), Food & Water – under the direction of yours truly – launched a campaign against Vermont’s own Cabot Creamery in 1995 when we learned that they were about to allow their farmers to use the Monsanto corporations synthetic bovine growth hormone (rBGH), Posilac. And, last week, Cabot announced that it was, indeed, going to be “listening to its customers” and banning the use of the cow drug by August of this year. Like I said: Victory! Yeah right.
There was one grammatical error in Cabot’s announcement however: They said they were listening to their “customers.” But what they should have said was “customer.” Because Cabot’s nearly-fifteen years of flinging their noses at their real customers who were demanding an end to its rBGH use was really stopped by one, single “customer”: Wal-Mart. Yep, it was the mega-retailer who let Cabot know that they were looking for hormone-free dairy products. And when Wal-Mart said, “jump,” Cabot said, “how high?” – especially when, according to dairy industry insiders, Wal-Mart is now responsible for nearly 25% of Cabot’s sales.
But, for the sheer fun of it, let’s step back and look at how Food & Water secured this “victory.” In the spring of 1995 as Food & Water was preparing to unveil a similar anti-rBGH campaign against Land 0’Lakes, an employee of Cabot Creamery approached me with the news that he had obtained an internal memo from Cabot’s headquarters that he was certain I would be interested in. The Cabot employee was right: The memo acknowledged that Cabot farmers were not only being allowed to use rBGH but that its use was well underway. And this was a time when Cabot was publicly declaring a “wait and see” attitude about Monsanto’s cow drug.
After confirming the authenticity of the memo and a few phone calls with Cabot’s executives, a campaign was born. As we said at the time, we weren’t about to go after the Minnesota-based Land O’Lakes for its use of rBGH and then ignore the same consumer and animal welfare transgressions by our neighbors, Cabot Creamery (at the time, Food & Water was headquartered in Walden, Vermont, a mere five miles up the road from Cabot).
The campaign generated enormous attention both here in Vermont and throughout the United States. While most anti-rBGH activists at the time were focused on lobbying the Food & Drug Administration or Congress, Food & Water saw the writing on the wall and, instead, directed our campaigns at the corporations seeking to use the product. I wrote an article at the time, in fact, that described the legislators and regulators as the mere “puppets” in the battle, while the Monsantos and the food corporations like Cabot were the “puppeteers.” And so we aimed directly at the folks holding the strings.
It got mighty heated, too. While our campaign generated thousands of letters, postcards and phone calls to Cabot’s offices demanding that they reverse their decision based on human health and animal welfare considerations, Cabot dug in their heels and called in their favors from Vermont’s political, media and economic elite to help them fight off the big, bad Food & Water.
The facts regarding rBGH’s link to cancer and its known contribution to animal disease and even death were mostly discarded by the rescue squad called in by Cabot to fend us off. Governor Howard Dean held a press conference to condemn us. Newspapers editorialized about our “tactics” being suspect (boycotts?). And even our peers in the consumer and environmental movement (yes, VPIRG and Rural Vermont) came to Cabot’s defense, urging us to take our campaign someplace else. Chickens. But, then again, they’re still operating at full-strength…
After hearing about Cabot’s fifteen-year change of rBGH policy, I wandered out to my barn to peruse my old Food & Water archives (stored in a horse stall, where the horses have dutifully defecated on them and found a real use for them: scratching posts). Oh boy, let the memories flow.
Here are some of my favorite moments while walking down the Cabot campaign memory lane this morning:
• After Food & Water unveiled a radio commercial targeting Cabot’s use of rBGH, Governor Howard Dean held a press conference condemning Food & Water, calling us a “terrorist group” and, while holding up a package of Cabot’s cheese, urged all Vermonters “to go home and eat two Cabot grilled cheese sandwiches.”
• Another “liberal” politician, Elizabeth Ready, a state senator at the time but later the state’s auditor, had this to say to Food & Water via the media: “Either pack your bags and hit the road or change your tactics.” And, remember, this was when we were simply asking people to “call Cabot” and ask them to stop using rBGH.
• Cabot’s spokesperson at the time, Roberta McDonald, was good for more than a few whacky comments about Food & Water, too. Following the Dean “terrorist” analogy, McDonald compared Food & Water to the Unabomber before declaring that, “locking up the leaders of Food & Water would be a better way to protect the people.” Yikes. I guess we were getting on her nerves, huh?
Funny, though, that we don’t hear the same kind of language now about Wal-Mart. I mean, they simply asked for the same thing Food & Water asked for fifteen years ago: Stop using rBGH. Oh well, I guess it’s all a matter of how you ask….
I’ll be sharing some more stories about the early years of Food & Water now that I’ve jumped down the rabbit hole of opening the old files and bringing the memories bubbling up from yesteryear. They were good times. We were fighting the good fight. We were just a decade and a half ahead of the curve of change.
Go figure.
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i am ending my boycott of walmart and cabot, on the advice of my homeopath. boots
Well, Michael…I guess all the ‘health people’ will be shopping at WalMart, in spite of their ‘terrorist’ tactics againt unions and communities. Rural Vermont and VPIRG will probably put out a joint Fact Sheet taking credit. And oh…don’t forget how Pollina can spin this for his next run.
I rember the RV progs calling you a ‘loose cannon’ back in ‘98, ‘99. Guess WalMart is a bigger cannon. WalMart–Where the Organic Upscalers Shop. Next, I suppose, Halliburton will go solar.
Anyway, I remember you were the one who called it. Can’t forget WCAX calling Food and Water an out-of-state radical group, or some such thing. Maybe WalMart/Cabot will ask you to do an ad:
“Hi, I’m Michael Colby. Remember me. I’m that Radical Out-Of-Stater guy everyone hated for attacking one of Vermont’s treasured companies., Cabot Cheese. Hell, I even went after Ben & Jerry. But times have changed now. Our treasured companies have heard the voice of The Almighty Spirit telling them it’s Its Will to save the people, and I’m now proud to stand here and say CHEESE. I’ll even feed it to my horses. So when you go shopping, look for my picture on the Cabot label. That means it’s certified 100% purity of essence of being. Nothing radical about it, just your All-American wholesome product you can feed to your kids, or send to the poor in Guatemala, or give to the homeless bum on the street without any fear of being sued. When I go to parties now I bring Cabot Cheese for the crackers. We have some cheese and crackers, load up on Native Vermont Organic Wine, and chat about the good old days, when, like Fidel Castro, I started the Revolution in Quality Foods. So eat some Cabot Cheese. You can find it at your nearest WalMart. If not there, then at the next Walmart two blocks away. I eat a big piece of this every night before I go to sleep. The little lady says it’s cut down on my farting at night. And remember too that the cows who give the milk to make Cabot Cheese are happy and 100% house-broken. And now here’s a word from our next Governor, Anthony Pollina. Anthony…”
Brilliant, Petey. You owe me ONE LESS beer. One.
I still remember when you called me after an appearance on WCAX many years ago. And look how far we’ve come…
Yeah. We’re even more marginalized now. Maybe I ought to get GMD to do us in one of its Polls:
Who’s the Biggest
Loser? You Decide
1–Anthony Pollina
2–Michael Colby
3–Rich Tarrant
4–Gaye Symington
5–Peter Buknatski
6–IBM
7–Jim Douglas
8–Deer
7–
Awesome.
Yeah, but where’s Boots? Or are you considering him a “winner” because he got sixty votes in his last election?
Sixty votes! Hell, he’s a popular dude. Almost as much as Symington.
Hey, a few years ago I got 114 votes in a losing effort for the walden selectboard… that’s gotta get me on some list somewhere, eh?
Indeed, Wes, that qualifies you for the losers’ list — right between Fred Tuttle and Boots. Congrats. If you play your cards right, you could probably convince Peter to buy you a beer.
I will buy anyone a beer who will vote for me. One Beer, One Vote. PeteySweety, Beer Laureate of Vermont
it was 72, and i was the 3rd largest vote getter. and statewide i received 2% for ag or was it sect. of state, or was it ? they all run together. boots
[...] Read more here: Victory! Cabot to Ban Bovine Growth Hormone! | Broadsides [...]
if you want to keep beating a dead horse, i know where one is buried and you can salvage the shoes if you dig it up.
Go for it, Mikey. Is this on CBS News yet? “WalMart Backs Radical Nader-Fuck On Banning Bovine Growth Hormone” Are you going to speak (or sing?) at Super Bowl halftime–or is Springsteen doing the song:
“Ban all that bgh
I said ban all that bgh
Ban all the bgh
There’s a man
In Vermont
Banning bgh
Went down to the corner store
They didn’t have the cheese
I was lookin’ for
Said to the grocer
‘Now what the fuck
Don’t you know that bgh
Has fucked the USA up?
Ban all that bgh
I said ban all that bgh
Where’s that man
Banning bgh?
Don’t want that shit
In the United States
I eat cheese with my politics
I drink milk to get up my dick
Don’t want no hormones
In my food and water
It makes you crazy
Ask my teenage daughter
Ban all that bgh
I said…………………..”
Yeah. And the crowd roars. And the Cardinals surrender.
Great post.
Just spoke today with a friend - an environmental researcher and advocate - about VELCO’s request to the ANR to be designated an ‘environmental leader,”
so I did a post about it on my blog
http://blazingindiscretions.blogspot.com/2009/01/velco-is-not-environmental-leader.html
She’s not blog-savvy, but I mentioned your post about Cabot (she remembers their dumping ammonia into the Winooski river a few years ago and the hassle it took to get to clean that mess up). Anyway, she remembered your leadership in pure food and water from years ago, so I sent her your blog url.
Gawd, it never ends. - Jay
I am looking for a RBGH/RBST free mozzarella cheese that is available in bulk quantities… any ideas!?!?
Michael
I have been outside the US for some time now and have lost touch with the Hardwick crowd I used to spend so much time with. You know, back in the 1990s I spent so much effort on the Ban rBGH campaign, it was incredible. Not that my attention was more or less than all the others that worked on the boycott, just that it meant a great deal to me.
All these years, now the boys are grown, life has moved on, but I have still been boycotting Cabot, Land O’Lakes (and Shell, of course), and now they say they are done. Well, I am thrilled you reported this. I truly didn’t think I would live long enough to see this in print. Of course, I am even more cynical than you are, and I don’t believe it makes any difference now. They are pumping these animals with so many other hormones and drugs that the milk isn’t safe anyway.
Glad to know you are still out there fighting the good fight. It was a pleasure to work with you in days past.