Grocer switches to hormone-free milk

ST. LOUIS -- One of the nation's largest retail grocery chains has announced plans to switch to milk free of synthetic hormones.

The announcement earlier this month from Kroger Co. is another blow to suburban St. Louis-based Monsanto Co., which already had been reducing inventory of its milk production-boosting hormone as Starbucks Coffee Co. and other retailers rejected it.

Monsanto markets the hormone rBST, or recombinant bovine somatotropin, under the brand name Posilac. The Food and Drug Administration and the company insist the hormone is safe.

Kroger, which is based in Cincinnati, said consumer preference -- not safety concerns -- prompted their decision By February, Kroger plans to sell only milk certified as free of synthetic hormones at the 2,458 stores it operates in 31 states under two dozen local names.

In its most recent quarterly financial report, Monsanto said it will continue this year to reduce bulk powder inventory of Posilac, and it believes some requests for rBST-free milk "will limit our future sales."

"With higher milk prices these days, it's disappointing that [Posilac] production technology -- which can add efficiency at the farm gate and have a direct impact on consumer costs -- is being denied," Monsanto spokesman Andrew Burchett said Friday.