Hormone-free milk (how's it labeled?)

[Nitenites]

I'm struggling to purchase hormone-free milk for our family. I know that organic milk isn't necessarily free of artificial hormones, so I'm reading my labels. What has me confused is our store-brand milk. The label says, "No artificial growth hormones." Would you assume that that means there are no ADDED hormones? I mean, theoretically, couldn't it contain added hormones that aren't artificial? Am I just being paranoid?

[AJP]

Organic dairies are not allowed to use rBGH, the artificial hormone used to stimulate higher milk production. You may have read that organic milk still has hormones in it, because all milk contains hormones, that's the nature of milk. Only non-organic dairies are allowed to inject their cows with the artificial hormones, though. If it says "no artificial growth hormones" that should mean the cows producing that milk have not been treated with rBGH. There aren't any non-artificial hormone treatments for dairy cows, AFAIK. However, I don't think there's any regulation of the "no artificial hormones" claim outside of organic, except that perhaps non-organic farmers who have said they don't treat with hormones may have signed contracts with the distributor to that effect. Organic regulations are enforced (in theory).

[Sayward]

It is illegal for dairy to be labeled as 'hormone-free' because milk contains over 40 different mammalian hormones (that *do* affect our systems, btw). So, they always have to specify 'added/artificial' hormones.