Hormone Labelling Increased Sales Value

BOZEMAN - May 19/05 - SNS -- Dairy companies which voluntarily labelled milk as containing no added bovine growth hormone reported an increase in sales volume as well as an increase in the price consumers were willing to pay for their product, a Montana State University master's study reports.

The work is thought to provide the first estimates of the impact of voluntary labeling related to biotechnology issues on retail purchases of a food using regional and national sales data. The question for agricultural producers is whether voluntary labeling has particular value when highlighting a comparison to biotech products, says MSU Economist Dave Buschena.

Former MSU student Kristin Kiesel and MSU economists Buschena and Vincent Smith published a study based on Kiesel's master's thesis in the May edition of the "American Journal of Agricultural Economics." Buschena was Kiesel's adviser at MSU. She is now studying for her doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley.

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