Last week, I was listening to the radio and heard two different ads for milk running back-to-back. What an interesting story they told.

The first was a Safeway ad promoting their Dairy Glen milk, which was on sale for $1.98 per gallon. For those of you familiar with Safeway, they also have a store brand called Lucerne, which is the same milk, but was selling for $2.99 per gallon, or $2.50 per gallon for their club members.

Immediately following was an ad for Alpenrose, a Portland dairy that went completely rBGH-free last November. There was no doubt about the main point of the ad - it was proclaiming that it was rBGH- (or rBST-) free and using that fact as a marketing tool to appeal to more knowledgeable and health-conscious consumers.

There you have the current state of the milk marketing battles in a nutshell. The big chains that still allow rBGH are trying to win you over by selling it cheap, at times as a loss leader to get people in the store. Safeway isn't alone. Fred Meyer, the northwest chain owned by Kroger, has been running billboards promoting their milk at $1.99 per gallon. Safeway and Fred Meyer both have milk processing plants in Portland.

On the other side, the rBGH-free milk dairy processors are proud of the fact of being free of the drug and nearly always label their products accordingly, fully informing consumers.

Here are the lessons we can learn from the grocery stores and the dairies:

1. There has NEVER been a dairy using rBGH that has revealed this to their customers by putting it on their labels. Why would they? They don't want anyone to know.

2. The next time you're in the grocery store, check out the location of the milk. It's almost always in the back of the store, requiring you to walk past a lot of groceries to get to it, which retailers hope you'll buy on impulse. They do this because they know milk is a staple and that most shoppers will buy it even when they buy little else. Milk is big business, not only for the profits it generates by itself, but also as a draw to get you in the building.

3. The brands allowing rBGH will most likely use major discounting to try to stave off the movement toward organic and conventional rBGH-free brands.

Let's talk about price. Organic milk, which is rBGH-free by definition and also doesn't allow the use of pesticides or antibiotics, is certainly more expensive than rBGH milk. Conventional rBGH-free milk is typically either the same price or slightly more than rBGH milk.

When you buy either conventional rBGH-free or organic milk, you're doing more than protecting your health, which if you're reading this you already know. You're also protecting cows from having their natural metabolisms artificially altered by this genetically engineered drug, which has led to increases in at least 16 different harmful medical conditions.

But in addition, you're helping dairy farmers. Nearly all dairies that have gone rBGH-free pay their farmers a higher price to stay off the stuff. Dairy farmers, especially the smaller, independent ones, have had a terrible time coping with low, uncertain milk prices, often leading to their going out of business. By paying a small premium, you're not only helping yourself, you're helping family farmers attain a measure of financial stability.

And how much more are you paying? It will vary, of course, but if you pay $1.00 - $3.00 more per gallon for organic and average a gallon per week, that comes to about $50-$150 per year. If you pay $0.50-$1.00 more per gallon for rBGH-free conventional, that comes to about $25-$50 more per year. I realize some people are watching every penny and might have difficulty with this. But for most of you, this is more of an investment that avoids the health risks of rBGH, helps cows and farmers, and leads all of us toward an rBGH-free world, as dairies continue to listen to what their consumers want.


Rick