The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

112 the world according to monsantopany’s human rights policy—which the International Dairy Food Association(IDFA), a powerful pro-rBGH dairy lobbying group,* hastened to put on itsWeb site: “You stated that these deceptive practices mislead consumersabout the quality, safety, or value of milk and milk products from cows supplementedwith rBST. ...We share your concerns. . . . FDA . . . is in theprocess of exploring ways to document current labeling practices for certainmilk and milk products to determine if these products are labeled in a mannerthat is false and misleading.”Illegal Propaganda“Look to your left—that’s one of the largest dairy farms in the region, andit is certain that it uses the transgenic growth hormone,” said John Peck,executive director of Family Farm Defenders. “If you want to film it, bediscreet—you never know.” The young farmer carefully pulled over to theside of the road. We had picked up his anxiety, and we did the three shots asquickly as possible. In front of us was a huge dairy establishment holdingseveral hundred cows penned in straight rows. The animals never went outsideand were fed entirely with food supplements—genetically modified(GM) soy and meal. Dark-skinned workers moved around the site. “They’reundocumented Mexicans,” Peck explained. “This kind of business operateslike a factory that employs a low-paid workforce that is easily exploitable.”It was October 2006, and we were in Wisconsin, long the largest dairy producerin the United States until it was outstripped by California, where farmslike the one in front of us had proliferated in the last ten years, thanks torBGH. “Today,” Peck said, “Wisconsin farms have an average of 50 cows comparedto 400 in California, but we are the largest producer of organic milk.”We got back on the road and drove through hilly green country dottedwith tidy farms, many displaying the sign “Amish Products.” Wisconsin harborsthe fourth-largest Amish community in the country, who continue toabide by the rules set by the old order, unchanged since the sect fromSwitzerland settled in the United States in the late seventeenth century:*On the site www.idfa.org, one finds the following: “Monsanto is a supplier of agricultural productsthat increase farm productivity and food quality. The company manufactures and markets Posilac, atechnology that has demonstrated its profitability by enabling dairy farmers to produce 8 to 12 moregallons per cow per day.”