Milk The Deadly Poison

BOOK REVIEW Milk: The Deadly Poison by Robert Cohen Argus Publishing, Inc. Eaglewood Cliffs, NJ  1997 Reviewed by Margaret Setter.

In this book  Robert Cohen confronts a paradox.  A growing number of Americans are turning away from milk for health reasons.  According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) the “increased use of low-fat and skim milk instead of whole milk has been substantial.  However, the overall use of milkfat did not fall, because cheese consumption soared”.

United States dairy farmers are paid by weight (in pounds) not by liquid measure.  People eat pounds of cheese and drink pounds of milk.  How much milk does the average American drink?  To arrive at any reliable estimate it is necessary to use USDA conversion factors.  It takes 10 pounds of milk to make one pound of hard cheese, 12 pounds of milk to make one pound of ice cream, 2.1 pounds of milk to make a one pound can of evaporated milk, and so on. 

For example, in 1995 each American ate 15.9 pounds of ice cream made from 190.8 pounds of milk. (Consisting of fat, cholesterol, milk proteins etc)   According to USDA figures the average American consumed a total of 584 pounds of milk and dairy products in 1995.   Cohen claims this figure is an understatement.  According to his calculations using the same conversion factors, US annual total dairy consumption per head totals a whopping 932.05 lbs of milk.  This is largely the result of concentrated economic power wielded by huge conglomerates such as Monsanto who, in addition to constant marketing, between them have more than 35,000 registered lobbyists in Washington DC.

Milk is a ubiquitous, often invisible, presence in the daily diet of most people. Biscuits, cakes and other farinaceous products more often than not include ‘milk solids', usually showed in tiny print listed among the ingredients in accordance with labeling laws.   Incidentally, labeling laws were not a free gift granted from on high but were won after years of lobbying by citizens' action groups.  This is just one example of the ongoing democratic struggle necessary to make economic and political power responsible and accountable for their activities.

MILK: THE PERFECT FOOD?

When the Pilgrims arrived in America in the first quarter of the 17^th century they brought with them the food culture and cuisine derived from Britain, their native land.  The individual milk yield of the cows they brought with them was about one quart, slightly less than a litre per day.  A small amount of butter fat, less than a kilo a week, was stored to provide precious nourishment during the long harsh New England winters.  Even so, many early colonists died of starvation in those first cruel years.

 Within a generation the colonists had succeeded in transplanting their food culture into the areas they settled. Every American family had a dairy cow. Yields remained meagre by today's standards, with the average cow providing less than two litres of milk per day.   Moderate amounts of milk and cheese contributed to a healthy diet for people usually engaged in hard, physical work.

In 2005 this relationship between hard work and low to moderate dairy intake has been transformed.  Thanks to blanket advertising America is awash with milk and an almost infinite variety of manufactured dairy products.  At the same time most Americans lead sedentary lives. As a result, they have never been more overweight, which is not surprising, given that dairy products now comprise 42% by weight of the average diet.

Cohen attributes the growing phenomenon of men sporting ‘beer bellies' to milk because:

1. Per capita consumption of milk and dairy products in 1994 more than tripled the amount of beer consumed.

2.  A glass of milk contains 2 ½ times more kilojoules than a similar quantity of beer, and contains 16 grams of fat, while beer contains no fat.

Cohen in my opinion is a ‘stirrer' in the best sense of the world.  He relentlessly trawls through enormous reams of data, revealing every aspect of his investigations in what amounts to an obsession to reveal the truth as he sees it.  His thoroughness in this regard does not always make for easy reading. Some passages may present quite a challenge to some readers, made more so by the way he sets out his information and argument.  I found the proliferation of font styles and copious sub-headings contributed to the confusion. However, these are minor distractions compared with rigorous argument presented plain-style in other chapters.

Under the heading How Monsanto Plays Politics Cohen describes some of the myriad ways this biotech conglomerate exerts political and economic power.   This is a world rarely glimpsed by a public turned off by politics, hooked into a commercial world promoting the values of hedonism and self-interest.  In a celebrity driven culture, gorgeous models, famous sporting identities, get in for a slice of the action.

 “Drink milk and you're beautiful”.  Spread the word, “Real Men Drink Milk”.

MILK HAS CHANGED: GENETIC ENGINEERING

According to Cohen, unpasteurised milk from healthy cows contains vitamins and enzymes.  However, proteins in milk and lack of magnesium make milk an inefficient source for proper calcium absorption.  Sufficient quantities of calcium are present in a balanced (vegetarian or vegan) diet to satisfy the human need for calcium.  The more protein you consume, the more calcium you lose.  Vegetarians have significantly lower levels of osteoporosis than the general population and are less likely to suffer allergies and bowel disorders attributed to milk consumption.   Where does the cow get her calcium? Not from milk, but from consuming a plentiful supply of greens. Milk consumption plays a leading role in the high rate of cholesterol, responsible for America' number one killer, heart disease.  But this is not the whole story. There is worse to come.

All mammals produce growth hormones in their milk. They are essential for the successful lactation and development of the young animal for the brief period it is dependent upon the mother.  Growth hormones differ according to species, except for one.  When we drink milk we are ingesting bovine growth hormone (bGH), a powerful growth hormone identical to that naturally produced by our own bodies.

In the summer of 1994, an article in a health newsletter reviewed the most controversial drug application in the history of America's Food and Drug Administration (FDA).   Monsanto had isolated the naturally occurring bovine growth hormone and merged it with bacteria which, when injected back into cows, would result in greatly increased milk production.  This genetically altered hormone became known as Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone.  (rbGH)

Various scientists working for pharmaceutical companies, including Searle and Eli Lilley, carried out animal studies for Monsanto in 1989.  These studies were reviewed and evaluated by the FDA (Juskevich & Guyer) in a landmark paper published in the prestigious journal, Science in 1990, and formed the basis for the FDA to give Monsanto permission to market rbGH in 1993.

Cohen exhaustively examines all aspects of the FDA paper, with particular reference to the studies involving animal testing.   Cohen insists the study was gravely flawed.

Michael R. Taylor, executive assistant to the Commissioner of the FDA, after representing Monsanto returned to the FDA in 1991 where, in 1994 he signed a Federal Register notice warning grocery stores not to label milk as ‘rbGH-free, Monsanto having resisted considerable pressure from consumer and health organisation to have modified milk appropriately labeled.  In the face of mounting public opposition to genetic engineering and rbGH milk in particular, in 1996 President Clinton gave presidential assent to the Economic Espionage Act.  This Act authorised the FBI to investigate any incidences of illegal use of trade secrets. In this manner the study was defined as a ‘trade secret'. The Act stipulates fines of $10million dollars and/or 15 years imprisonment for each offence. 

Even so, US farmers continue to express their opposition to GE and rbGH.  This has brought a backlash from the state.  At least 17 US states have now passed product disparagement laws in an attempt to contain the opposition.  In Australia, as well as the European Union, the picture remains much brighter, thanks to public resistance.

Growing participation in social justice, environmental and animal rights organisation is the prerequisite for bringing about a society that respects life in all its wondrous diversity.  Whatever we do to the world and its beautiful animals, we do to ourselves. 

Small actions and choices exercised by those willing to consciously change their lives in a new direction may help bring into being a new civilisation, based more on our human capacity for caring and sharing, replacing the present system which threatens the destruction of us all.

Click Here to Read: A Conversation with Robert Cohen aka NOTMILKMAN