What's really in your food? 

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Under 1994 guidance from the FDA -- which approved the use of rBGH and maintains that it's completely safe -- most dairy processors that market milk from cows not treated with the hormone include a disclaimer on the label indicating that "no significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST-treated cows." Monsanto asked the agency to revisit the issue, as the company deems that this disclaimer is not enough to "balance" what it asserts are deceptive claims by producers that milk from cows not treated with the hormones is healthier.

The company also petitioned the Federal Trade Commission to take action on grounds that milk processors "mislead customers by falsely claiming that there are health and safety risks associated with milk from rBST-supplemented cows."

In response, the FDA reaffirmed its commitment to the current guidance for labeling rBGH milk. The FTC requested that several companies amend the way they label milk from cows free of the artificial hormone. The companies complied, according to Monsanto. To Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association, the premise upon which Monsanto petitioned the FDA and the FTC is absurd. Monsanto claims that the two milks are identical and that companies implying health attributes to milk from cows free of the hormone are somehow misleading their customers. Cummins says those claims are demonstrably false.

"There is a difference, that's why it's patented. There is a difference, that's why it's banned in much of the industrialized world. There is a different amino acid chain at the end," Cummins says.

Milk naturally contains a bovine growth hormone, but the rBGH is synthetically engineered and has a different chemical composition, he explains.

The FDA maintains there is no difference in milk from cows treated with the artificial hormone and those that are not, but Cummins says that's because the agency is not testing for it. He says the agency has admitted at various points that a dozen chromatography machines around the country have detected its presence in the milk.

A Monsanto spokesman says the FDA has not conveyed any such information to the company and that such allegations run contrary to the "FDA's very voluminous ruling on this matter." Both the FDA and Monsanto assert that there is no "compositional" difference between milk from cows treated with the hormone and cows that are not.

Either way, Cummins says, the agency is flouting the law and its own regulations.

"You are not supposed to get an animal drug approved unless you have a detection plan for it, the idea being that if you legalize an antibiotic in animal feed, they want to be able to test to make sure that there is not a dangerous level of antibiotics in the milk," he says.

In Monsanto's view, the distinction is that rBGH is a hormone, not an antibiotic or pesticide.

The fact sheet provided by the FDA explains that long-term research to assess the safety of rBGH was unnecessary because studies demonstrated that bovine growth hormone "is biologically inactive in humans even if injected," the artificial version is "orally inactive" and the natural hormone and the artificially created version are "biologically indistinguishable."

FDA spokesman Michael Herdon declined to comment on the issue further, stating that the "FDA's current position on rBGH is well-documented."

The issue of antibiotics is a whole other subject. According to Cummins, the FDA rarely tests milk or meat for antibiotics given "off-label."

"Veterinarians can sell a drug to a farmer that is not approved for that use," Cummins says. "Europeans are appalled that U.S. dairy farmers have access to 50 to 100 antibiotics, whereas [the FDA] only tests for four."

Chocolate by any other name?

The FDA is also currently pondering a somewhat sweeter question: What makes "chocolate" chocolate? The dark delectable has long been understood as a confection made from crushed cacao beans, which provide the solid cocoa mass, as well as cocoa butter. The cocoa butter is responsible for the "melt in your mouth" goodness.

Trouble is, cacao beans are expensive, and industrial chocolate manufacturers have petitioned the FDA to allow them to replace the cocoa butter with cheaper fats and still call the resulting edible "chocolate." Cocoa butter has become increasingly prized for cosmetics and lotions, so the companies could make a bigger buck selling it for skin creams.

The petition came as part of a block of more than 200 proposed changes to food standards requested by the Grocery Manufacturers Association. In response to widespread press coverage, much of it negative, the FDA released a statement indicating that cacao fat, "as one of the signature characteristics of the product, will remain a principal component." What it didn't say, however, was just how much cocoa butter manufacturers will be able to substitute with vegetable oil and still call their product "chocolate."