foodperson.com

Remember the proposal to ban milk labels in Kansas stating that a dairy’s cows were not treated with growth hormone injections? Sen. Marci Francisco on Wednesday (March 5, 2008) notified people who had contacted her about the proposal that the bill appeared to be dead. From her email:

Senator Taddiken, chair of the committee, announced in the committee meeting this morning that he is NOT planning to schedule time to work this bill in committee.

He indicated that the wording of the bill was considered to be too broad, and that any necessary changes could be either accomplished through rules and regulations proposed by the Department of Agriculture (the Secretary of Agriculture submitted testimony in opposition to this bill) and reviewed by the legislature or that this issue could be taken up by an interim committee.

Thank you very much for expressing your concern. I do believe that it was helpful in stopping this legislation.

I call that a victory for consumers. Like most legislative proposals, this one isn’t really dead until its backers (hello, Monsanto!) give up, I suppose, but at least we seem to have dodged that bit of government intrusion in the market for now. I think I’ll go have a glass of local, rBGH-free milk to celebrate.