St. Paul, Consumers buying milk labeled rBGH free must rely on the good will of dairies that are reluctant to speak publicly about their product and a Department of Agriculture that considers the issue secondary.

Minnesota's dairy plant inspectors consider inspection for proper separation of rBGH free milk from milk potentially being treated with the artificial hormone as subordinate to their primary responsibilities even though the labeling of rBGH free milk is regulated by a 1994 Minnesota statute. In fact, there is no evidence in the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's inspection files, for the state's three largest dairies that produce rBGH free milk, that any inspection of rBGH packaging or bottling systems has been done for the years 2000 to 2002.

"It's a marketing issue and it's not really a food safety issue," Shirley Bohm, Director of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's Dairy and Food Inspection Division, said in a phone interview. "The primary focus of all of our inspections are the food safety issues."

Bohm does say that the Department's inspectors do look at rBGH labeling issues when they conduct Grade A plant inspections even though their is no evidence of that in the Department's files.

Although neither Bohm's agency nor federal regulators consider rBGH, which is a synthetically manufactured hormone used to increase a cow's milk production, a food safety issue many consumers do. They have reason to do so. When the Canadian government banned rBGH in 1998 Health Canada, the equivalent of the US Food and Drug Administration, said that rBGH may cause "sterility, infertility, birth defects, cancer, and immunological derangements" in humans. Since the release of the Health Canada report two studies, reported on in Science and The Lancet, have linked rBGH to an increased incidence in prostate and breast cancer.

As a result of these studies some American consumers have doubts about the safety of milk not labeled rBGH free.

"At this point, we have found no substantiation for the arguments by either pro or anti rBGH/rBST groups. However, the questions being asked by the consumer organizations about the methodology of the studies used by pro-rBGH/rBST groups and the potential risks associated with (rBGH) make a reasonable case for the need to conduct long-term studies on the consequences of ingesting milk containing rBGH/rBST. Currently, there are no long-term studies cited on the effects of rBGH/rBST," writes the national chain store Whole Foods Market on their web page.

It was these doubts about the human, as well as animal, health that created the political climate that allowed the passing of an rBGH free labeling law by the 1994 Minnesota legislature. Once the law was passed dairies began packaging milk labeled rBGH free.

"Our company has built its reputation on a commitment to listen to our customers," James Green, president of Marigold Foods, said in an April 27, 1994 press release. "It became clear some of our consumers wanted a product backed by the farmers pledge that the milk is rBGH free."

Today Marigold Foods continues to package an rBGH free milk called Kemps Select. Attempts to discuss Kemps Select with officials at Marigold Foods throughout the later part of July and most of August were unsuccessful. After numerous phone calls it was learned that only one person at Marigold Foods, Vice President Rachel Kyylo, can speak to the press. Phone calls and emails about rBGH free Select sent to Ms. Kyylo, and her assistant, were not responded to.

Four Minnesota dairies that sell rBGH free milk were repeatedly contacted by The Land. Only one small dairy, that packages only organic and rBGH free dairy products, was willing to talk to a reporter off the record. Carl Schroedor, Vice President of Schroedor Dairy, said he'd try and line up an interview about the company's rBGH products. Than he stopped returning phone calls. Phone calls were placed to plant management of Dean Foods, Land O Lake's milk bottler, and not returned. A commitment by a LOL spokesman to line up an interview with production people knowledgable about the firms rBGH products resulted in a last minute phone call and email from Lydia Botham, Director of LOL's Corporate Communications:

"LAND O LAKES branded products are known for being fresh, high-quality, good tasting, and nutritious and for offering a range of refrigerated-case choices that respond to diverse consumer wishes. With that in mind, LAND O LAKES Original milk is certified to come from cows which have not been treated with bovine growth hormone (rBST/rBGH). The following measures are taken to meet state certification standards: * Producers supplying milk for this product must sign an affidavit guaranteeing they are not using bovine growth hormone;

* Separate, assigned trucks are used to haul the raw milk;

* The milk is assigned to specifically identified storage tanks at the processing facility; and

* LAND O LAKES Original milk is processed first & and only after a system clean-up," Botham wrote in her email.

The retail milk business is highly competitive. At the heart of the Minnesota rBGH free labeling law is the issue of segregation. Milk, to be packaged as rBGH free, must be kept segregated from other milk from the cow to the carton. Segregation of milk is an industrial process. Although none of the companies indicated their segregation system is a trade secret, it could be considered one in the fiercely competitive retail milk market.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture's (MDA) low profile regarding the inspection of rBGH free milk segregation could be justified by two factors: The weakness of the Minnesota statute and the importance, and legal necessity, of inspecting all of the state's Grade A milk plants thoroughly every ninety days.

The Minnesota statute that regulates rBGH free labeling actually requires nothing of the MDA. Manufactures are required to keep records of how they segregate rBGH free milk from other milk. And they are required to make those records available to MDA inspectors. Manufacturers are also required to obtain affidavits from farmers who they get rBGH free milk from. The affidavits require the farmer to certify that their cows are not treated with rBGH. The statute requires that the manufacturers keep those affidavits on file and make them available to MDA inspectors. The statute does not require the inspectors to review the segregation records or to inspect the segregation facilities. The MDA has no rules that require an inspection of the milk segregation records or facilities.

"The statute is very clear," say Doug Engebretson, who supervises MDA's dairy plant inspectors, "so it was not necessary to write rules."

The regular Grade A plant inspections can last up to five days. They are complex and thorough. MDA's Shirley Bohm says that inspectors do look at rBGH free records during the inspections. The absence of any indication of such an inspection in MDA's files could indicate that there simply hasn't been a problem with rBGH segregation at the three plants that The Land reviewed, Kemps, Land O Lakes, and Schroedor's, in the last two and one half years. Inspectors are only required to write something up for the file if there is a problem. Dan Erickson, an inspector at the Kemps Minneapolis plant since at least 1994, said in a phone interview he had no memory of ever reporting a problem with rBGH segregation.

MDA's lack of visible interest in rBGH free labeling appears at the farm also. All dairy farms producing Grade A milk must be inspected regularly by an MDA inspector. Vincent Scherber, a dairy farmer from the Rogers area, signed an affidavit in 1994 saying he wasn't treating his cows with rBGH. From then until he retired in 1999 he supplied Kemps with rBGH free milk. His farm was inspected by MDA milk inspectors numerous times during that five year period. The inspectors never asked if he was using rBGH.

"I didn't think it was part of their job," he says.

According to Minnesota statute it's not.

Kemps never asked him to renew his 1994 affidavit.

"I figured if I'd signed it once that was good enough," Scherber says.

He's right. The statute has no provision to renew the affidavits.

The National Farmer's Organization, a collective marketing organization for farmers, does renew affidavits from time to time, according to Brad Rock of the NFO in Sauk Center.

"We do haul some loads of rBGH free milk to some of the bottlers," Rock says. "When we do that, when we put a route together, we go out and get affidavits from the farmers saying their cows are rBGH free. On a route, even if our truck isn't full, we don't mix the rBGH free milk with other milk"

Rock says the small premium that bottlers pay doesn't do much to recognize farmers who aren't using rBGH. But he believes that consumers who purchase milk labeled rBGH free can feel confident about the label.

"I think rBGH use is more common than people say," he says "but I'd be very surprised if any of the bottlers are putting rBGH milk into their rBGH free labeled product. They just have too much to lose."