Walmart, Hormones in Milk, and the EPA
Today in the News
Walmart
Walmart announced last year that they had plans to open four new stores in the District of Columbia.
Policy Analyst Ivan Osorio talks about community opposition to the stores’ opening.
“Predictably, the local union of the United Food and Commercial Workers was not enthused. UFCW Local 400 President Thomas McNutt went so far as to call Walmart ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing,’ because it’s nonunion. In reality, UFCW doesn’t want greater competition for its own employers. However, union self-interest isn’t the only motivation that animates some Walmart critics. Self-styled community activists decry Walmart for … well, changing things. A typical such critique is a Washington Post letter to the editor by D.C. restaurateur Andy Shallal, who raises the alarm that Walmart would change the ‘character’ of neighborhoods and add to a pattern of ‘destroying’ local businesses, while preemptively dismissing ‘any academic research’ that would contradict his assertions.”
Hormones in Milk
Stoneyfield Farm CEO Gary Hirshberg was quoted this week in The Washington Post saying, “I have yet to meet the consumer who says, ‘I want the milk with more synthetic hormones, please.’”
Senior Fellow Greg Conko explains that Hirshberg is referring to recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST), which is used to boost milk production in cows. But Conko argues that Hirshberg is misleading readers:
“Leave aside, for a moment, that rbST is administered to the cows, not put into the milk, and that there is no detectable rbST in the milk itself. And never mind that milk is loaded with plenty of the cow’s own natural hormones, including endogenous somatotropin. The most egregious problem with Hirshberg’s claim is that Stoneyfield Farms actually adds synthetic hormones to its own dairy products, and they advertise that fact right on the cartons, as well as on the company website — presumably in the belief that consumers will find their presence in Stoneyfield Farms milk a feature, not a bug.”
EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency recently admitted what critics have been long been saying: that the agency doesn’t care what impact their regulations have on American jobs.
CEI Vice President Iain Murray responds.
“It is time Congress for Congress to rein in these agencies by giving them a detailed charter enumerating their powers. For example, Congress never created the EPA. It was created by a departmental reorganization by President Nixon. The original idea was that the Council on Environmental Quality should be the oversight body for the nation’s environment, with the EPA acting as an administrative body. That state of affairs needs to be restored with the CEQ regaining its policy role. The EPA would need to seek express congressional approval for every expansion of its powers and justify its enforcement actions to an independent body.”