TECUMSEH, Kan. -- The Iwig Family Farm dairy in Tecumseh, Kan., sells about 3,500 gallons of bottled milk each week to retailers in Kansas from Manhattan to Lawrence, south into Osage County and down to Wichita.
While that may sound like a lot of milk to those of us who buy a gallon a week, it wouldn't make a dent in what larger dairies stock at supermarkets in that territory each week.
But it isn't what's in the Iwig Family Farm's bottles that has some people worried. It's the label on the bottles that has raised the ire of Monsanto Co., the maker of what is called recombinant bovine growth hormone, which can be given to cows to increase milk production.
The Iwigs don't use the hormone, and say so on their labels.
Such audacity apparently is a matter so serious that the people who manufacture and use the hormone had to involve the Kansas Legislature, asking it to pass a punitive bill prohibiting producers from making claims on their labels supported only by the "sworn statements" of the producers.
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What's in a label?
We've no reason to suspect the Iwigs would lie about what they do and don't put in their cows.
But that isn't enough for a Cowley County dairy farmer who also happens to be co-chairman of the Monsanto-backed American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology. The group, which has pushed for similar legislation in other states, fears allowing labels such as those used by the Iwigs and other small producers would lead consumers to think milk without such labels is dangerous.
Free-range chicken producers haven't driven Tyson out of business, and Ted Turner's lean buffalo meat, available at his Ted's Montana Grill restaurants, hasn't closed down any burger joints or steak houses.
And it's unlikely the Iwig Family Farm and its cows pose any threat to the huge dairies churning out most of the milk we see on the grocery shelves.
