COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Restricting milk labels that distinguish between cows given synthetic growth hormone and those that are not does a disservice to consumers trying to make their own choices, consumer groups and some dairy producers said Tuesday.

A rule proposed by the Ohio Department of Agriculture would prevent labels from making the hormone distinction unless they also contain the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s findings that there is no significant difference between milk produced with or without the recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rbST, hormone.

The debate over labeling in many cases is pitting dairy producers who don’t use the hormone against dairy farmers who use the hormone to boost milk production in their cows and help their profits. The artificial hormone duplicates a naturally occurring hormone found in cows.

It has been allowed since 1994 by the FDA, while Canada and the European Union, as well as others, have banned its use.

A growing number of consumers have begun to demand milk free of the hormone, providing marketing opportunities to dairy producers and sellers that advertise their milk as being produced without it. The Kroger Co., based in Cincinnati, moved to sell only rbST-free milk by February of this year.

An emergency executive order signed by Gov. Ted Strickland in February prohibited the use of labels that make the hormone distinction unless it also contained a disclaimer about the FDA’s findings. The order says a label without the disclaimer might mislead consumers because it makes milk produced with the hormone appear inferior when no such finding has been made.

The rule proposed by the agriculture department mirrors the executive order, and would take effect before the order expires in May. A public hearing is scheduled in Columbus on Wednesday, and the rule could be enacted as soon as April 24.

Consumer advocates and industry opposed to the rule say it is being pushed in Ohio and in other states by Monsanto Corp., which sells the hormone. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture adopted a similar rule, but then reversed course after pressure from consumers and the intervention of Gov. Ed Rendell.

The rule’s critics say the disclaimer requirement makes the label so long that some producers will simply go without any label. And they say the proposed rule actually limits consumer information and prevents them from making an educated choice.

“Consumers have a right to know how their food was produced and retailers, processors, and producers have a right to give them that information,” said Carol Goland, executive director of the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association. “The current rule infringes on those rights.”

Jerry Slominski, senior vice president for the International Dairy Foods Association, said the “proposal attempts to solve a problem that does not exist with a solution that will harm the vast majority of Ohio’s residents as well as the dairy industry itself.”

But the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation said the state Department of Agriculture did a good job crafting a rule that balances the interests of many different parties. Dairy producers should have a choice whether to use the synthetic hormone or not, and a label advertising milk as hormone free is also obligated to say that there is no real difference in the milk, said spokesman Joe Cornely.

Critics of the artificial hormone argue it makes the cows more susceptible to infection, which requires greater use of antibiotics. This could lead to more antibiotic-resistant bacteria that could impact humans, they argue.

They also say that the injection of the hormone into cows raises levels of another growth hormone that has been linked to cancer in excessive amounts. But no conclusive scientific evidence links the use of the synthetic hormone in cows to higher rates of cancer in humans.