More on ABC News Report on rbST

Terry Etherton

There has been more response to the ABC News report on rbST that ran on April 12,2007. I had posted my initial response to the story in my Blog, “Got Any Idea What’s in Milk?” The focus of that that blog was to point out that the story was slanted and did not present the facts about rbST in an accurate manner!

Mr. Jon Wheeler, a dairy producer from Sunnyside, WA has shared his perspectives about the ABC report on Dairy-L. I believe it presents important issues for the dairy industry to consider, and I have posted it (with Mr. Wheeler’s permission).

Dairy-Lers,

If you are not totally enraged by this coverage on ABC……then I am disappointed in this industry. This coverage was pure media hype with no substance, truth or true investigative reporting. Definitely one sided! This type of media display of incompetence needs to be addressed.

Back to disparaging of milk……we as an industry are going to suffer in the long run. Yes, I said we. The conventional producers and the organic milk producers are going to suffer in the long run. As long as we within this industry continue to compete against each other claiming there is good milk and bad milk, we will all lose. We must stand up together and champion the benefits of milk. All Milk! And we will, and win.

We as an industry have to come together and sell milk as milk, and promote milk for it’s value. rbST is a valuable tool for producers. It is safe. It has been researched and tested many years. Whether you use rbST or not this will affect you and your price of milk. Let us not continue to let activists and the media tear this industry apart.

I urge you to contact ABC news and demand that they get all the facts and tell the true story. If you care about this industry, if you care about agriculture and if you care about this country, then pull your heads out of the sand and make people accountable for what they are saying. This is AMERICA! In God we trust! Everyone else needs data…….let’s make sure we give them the correct data!

Take the time to view this clip from ABC news, which aired Thursday 4-12-07.

Jon Wheeler
Sunnyside, WA.

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