Label Milk Products to Inform Consumers

Thank you for the article ``Michigan Considers Bills to Label Hormone-Free Milk,'' Dec. 12. Consumers have a right to know of unnecessary threats to the well-being of cows forced to undergo growth hormone injections (BST).

Retired professor Bill Thomas is wrong to question labeling by asking: ``What are you going to label? The milk is absolutely the same.''

Products from sick or debilitated animals are not the same as products from healthy ones.

Labeling dairy products from cows injected with BST is essential. Though dairy farmer Ken Nobis may think it confusing to know where his food comes from, most Americans find a moral distinction between products from healthy and sick animals and therefore must be given the information necessary to make informed purchases. Christine Stevens, Washington President, Animal Welfare Institute

College rankings shouldn't matter

The opinion-page article ``To Find the Right College, Do Your Homework,'' Dec. 1, is something that I can relate to.

I attended Stephens College, a private women's institution in Columbia, Mo., which was ranked extremely low on the list of the Princeton Review's ``Best 306 Colleges.''

If I had read the rankings of colleges before making my decision to attend, I might have changed my mind. Students should be encouraged to pick schools where they can develop to their potential, regardless of national rankings. Rosalynd D. Wethe, Columbia, Mo.