
A polite fax, letter or phone call can help you change something
you don’t like. Our Take Action section has been developed
so you can easily contact business people and public officials
about issues important to you.
No Carbon Monoxide Meat
Support rBGH-Free Dairy Labels
Stop the Spread of Mad Cow Disease
"Hold The Hormones" Campaign A Success!
For more actions, or to be put on an email list to receive
current actions automatically, sign up for Food and Water
Watch’s Good
Food list.
Cows Unite
Sustainable Table supports the bossy bovine sisters of Cows Unite in their mission to get dairy-loving humans to choose the best organic milk. According to their Bovine Bill of Rights, this means choosing milk that comes from cows that are given the rights to pasture, sunshine, exercise, clean air, and freedom from antibiotics and toxic chemicals. Rise up!
Learn more and join their movement at www.cowsunite.org.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has decided to allow an additive, carbon monoxide, that makes packaged meat look red and fresh even beyond the time it is safe to eat
By creating a new red color typically associated with meat freshness, carbon monoxide, at the very least, makes meat appear to be fresher than it is; and could encourage consumers to buy spoiled meat that looks fresh and safe. Of particular concern is that the meat stays red in situations where pathogenic bacteria may be present at harmful levels.
Tell the Senate that you think it's deceptive and potentially dangerous to use carbon monoxide to color fresh meat and mislead consumers into believing that the meat is fresher than it actually is, especially where the meat may even be spoiled. Tell the Senate to support Levin's amendment, requiring the FDA to research and issue rules on CO in meat.
A recent poll conducted for Food & Water Watch indicates that 80 percent of consumers want milk from cows not treated with the hormone to be labeled “rBGH-free" but Monsanto, the manufacturer of rBGH, has asked for such labels to be restricted.
Consumers deserve the right to know if artificial growth hormone was used to produce their dairy products. Ask the FDA to preserve companies' right to label dairy products as "rBGH-free".
The
human form of mad cow disease causes a devastating brain-wasting
illness that is always fatal. Over 150 people around the world
have died from this disease, which is acquired by eating nervous
system materials such as the brain, eyeballs, and spinal cord
from infected cattle. Unlike other food-borne diseases, cooking
meat does not prevent the spread of mad cow disease or its
human form.However, consumers can be protected from mad cow
disease by strong regulations to keep high-risk materials
out of the human and animal food supplies.
The 1997 feed ban was enacted to help stop the spread of mad cow disease, but there
are loopholes. Take
action to ban these practices which endanger
the animals and ourselves.
And don’t forget, to receive current updates and actions
directly to your inbox, sign up for Food & Water Watch’s Good
Food list.
Hold the Hormones was a multi-pronged national campaign headed up by Food & Water Watch to stop the use of artificial growth hormones in Starbucks' dairy products.
News Flash
We Won! Thanks to thousands of emails, phone calls, and rallies by consumers like you, on August 24, 2007 Starbucks committed to serving only 100% hormone-free milk in all of its U.S. stores by the end of this year. Now there's a New Year's resolution we can get behind! Read their letter and the Food & Water Watch press release here. |
|
Starbucks promotes itself as a socially responsible company and, with more than 6,000 stores nation wide, buys a lot of milk. Now that Starbucks has finally made the switch to rBGH-free milk, they are sending a strong message to the dairy industry about consumers distaste for recombinant bovine growth hormone.
Food & Water Watch, Sustainable Table and many others have been adamant about Starbucks switching to rBGH-free milk because injecting cows with artificial growth hormone harms cows and may harm people. Cows "treated" with this hormone get more infections, which leads to more antibiotic use. Overuse of antibiotics in animal production creates antibiotic resistant bacteria, a serious threat to treating people. Additionally, there is a potential link between rBGH and higher risk of breast, prostate, and colon cancer.
Thanks to the many calls, email, and protests from healthy food advocates like you, Starbucks has committed to serving only 100% hormone-free milk in all of its U.S. stores by the end of this year. This is great news! Read more about our successes here.
If you would like to learn more about artificial hormones for yourself and to share with your friends, read our section on artificial hormones and watch The Meatrix II: Revolting, part of the campaign against rBGH. Also, visit our rBGH-free map to find artificial-hormone-free milk, cheese, ice cream, butter and yogurt in your state. Write us if you have a new idea to spread the word about artificial hormones.
|