The ethics if factory farming

[The Grand Nudger]

Believe that the FDA's stance on this (assuming you're talking about mastitis) is that the risk of mastitis as a consequence of their use is much smaller than the risk associated with environment and milking procedures (all of which can be managed). Alot of this stuff is, frankly, ad copy for producers who want to differentiate their product in a way that might con you into buying from them rather than from some other (more reasonably priced) competitor.

Here's something that might interest you as well.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2442129/

Fossil fuel consumption raises two major environmental concerns: atmospheric pollution and resource sustainability (31). As a consequence of the reduced herd population and total feed requirement from rbST supplementation of one million cows, the energy required from fossil fuels (cropping only) and electricity for milk production is decreased by 729 × 106 MJ per year and 156 × 106 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year, respectively (Table 2). To put these figures into context, the savings in gasoline alone would be sufficient to power ≈1,550 passenger cars, each traveling an average of 12,500 miles per year (32). Furthermore, the total fossil fuel British thermal units (BTU) and electricity savings would provide sufficient annual heat and electricity for ≈16,000 and 15,000 households, respectively (33).