A week ago Monday, the Tillamook Creamery Association, a co-op with 147 members, voted to ban the use of genetically engineered bovine growth hormone in their dairy herds and therefore their milk products.

Their board had been working on a policy to ban recombinant bovine somatotropin (abbreviated rbST) for the last two years, after initially approving its use in 1997. The reason? Customer concerns. The people who buy Tillamook cheese, ice cream and other products are asking the questions that led the board to study the issue and then propose a phase-out of rbST in the association’s member herds later this year. The board’s concern is that they’ll lose market share, that the good name and quality associated with Tillamook Cheese, in particular, will be harmed.

There’s another little issue about rbST though, that the rest of us non-dairy farmers don’t know much about. According to a Canadian Veterinary Medical Association study, cows that get rbST injections have 25 percent more udder infections and 50 percent higher risk of lameness due to problems with their legs and feet. The Canadian study said rbST treated cows are more likely to be culled, meaning they head for the slaughterhouse.

Using rbST leads to higher milk production, but also higher feed consumption. The injections are expensive too, and some dairy operators believe the additional milk production revenues don’t offset the costs of rbST and additional animal care and feed. Throw in a potential loss of market share due to customers worried about potential human health impacts, and the balance tips toward a ban. Sounds like a business decision to me.

As usual, it isn’t so simple. First, there’s pressure – probably political, legal and financial – from Monsanto, the manufacturer of rbST under the brand name Prosilac. You know, that’s the same corporation that makes Round-up and has convinced many people that the best way to rid Willapa Bay of the spartina – brought here from the eastern seaboard 100 years ago as oyster packing – is to spray it with their product. Monsanto is also the outfit that investigates and sues farmers for allowing pollen from neighboring fields using the company’s GMO corn to drift onto their corn that has the temerity to not be genetically modified. Monsanto claims these non-buying corn farmers have stolen its intellectual property. Then there’s Monsanto producing genetically modified crops like tomatoes onto which you can spray as much Round-up as you want and not phase the tomato plant. In fact, if you buy Monsanto’s Round-up ready plants, you’re required to buy a certain quantity of their pesticides to go with them.

There was some irony in an Oregonian article about the Tillamook Creamery controversy. After a pretty thorough exploration of the pros and cons of the decision from a farming and business perspective, with many quotes from dairymen, the last quote was from a Tillamook County dairy farmer who basically said she wasn’t going to have any “tree huggers” tell her how to run a dairy, implying that vegetarians were the source of the potential ban. Where did that come from? Was this a back-handed way of saying that any suggestion that you change the way you farm or do business automatically must have come from those devils, “tree hugging environmentalists?” Since when does a concern about human health equate with environmental health? Gee, I must have missed something! (Just kidding – since you and I know that a messed up environment means fewer jobs in the long run and human health impacts now and forever.)

Meanwhile back at the ranch, literally, Oregon Country Beef, founded almost 20 years ago with eight ranches, has been growing by leaps and bounds. Producing range-grown cattle through careful breeding programs and no hormones or antibiotics, their co-op has grown to approximately 90 ranches in several western states.

Doc Hatfield, one of the founders and a veterinarian, got tired of going out in snowstorms to assist birthing mother cows and became concerned about the amount of antibiotics he’d had to use to keep marginal animals on their feet. Doc and his wife Connie got together with a small group of neighboring ranchers to figure out how to maintain their family ranching lifestyle, sustain their rangeland, and produce a healthy beef product. Now they have a market niche that has spread to 10 states. They’re obviously not vegetarian tree huggers (there are few trees on their High Desert Ranch near Brothers) but decided to work with their cattle, their environment, and their customers – and it turned out to be a sound business decision.

Victoria Stoppiello is a free lance writer from Ilwaco, isn’t a vegetarian, but never eats beef unless it’s from Doc and Connie’s outfit.