Milk prices are up, and may well go higher. What can be done about it? Dr. Henry Miller, a former FDA official now with the Hoover Institution, has an idea:

One way to ease the shortage and lower the prices is to take greater advantage of a proven 13-year-old biological technology that stimulates milk production in dairy cows — a protein called recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST), or bovine growth hormone. The protein, produced naturally by a cow's pituitary, is one of the substances that control its milk production. It can be made in large quantities with gene-splicing (recombinant DNA) techniques. The gene-spliced and natural versions are identical.

Bad-faith efforts by biotechnology opponents to portray rBST as untested or harmful, and to discourage its use, keep society from taking full advantage of a safe and useful product. The opponents' limited success is keeping the price of milk unnecessarily high.

When rBST is injected into cows, their digestive systems become more efficient at converting feed to milk. It induces the average cow, which produces about eight gallons of milk each day, to make nearly a gallon more. More feed, water, barn space and grazing land are devoted to milk production, rather than other aspects of bovine metabolism, so that you get seven cows' worth of milk from six.

Dr. Miller's op-ed prompted lots of responses, some of which are available here.

I find it interesting that opposition to rBST largely consists of what economist Bruce Yandle termed a "baptist and bootlegger" coalition. The "baptists" are ideological interests, such as anti-biotech activists and animal welfare groups. The "bootleggers" are small and boutique dairy farmers concerned that rBST can increase the competitive advantage of larger dairy producers. Such combinations of ideological and economic interests are common in environmental law, and can be quite influential.