«When you think of milk you think of a white liquid that’s come from an animal,» Victorian dairy farmer Raelene Hanratty said.
She is one of many dairy farmers around the country who want to reclaim the word ‘milk’.
Ms Hanratty is supporting a new online petition being run by farmer lobby group Dairy Connect, to tighten the definition and use of the word milk in labelling in Australia.
«Anything that’s a plant-derived juice, I believe, is a substandard product that doesn’t have the qualities milk has,» she said.
The Dairy Connect effort has been encouraged by a recent European Court of Justice ruling stating «purely plant-based products cannot, in principle, be marketed with designations such as milk, cream, butter, cheese or yoghurt».
In the USA there is bipartisan support for the DAIRY PRIDE Act (Defending Against Imitations and Replacements of Yogurt, Milk, and Cheese To Promote Regular Intake of Dairy Everyday), which would direct the Food and Drug Administration to clear up the definition of milk.
In Canada, laws already exist that prohibit dairy alternatives being labelled as milk, protecting the word as meaning «the lacteal secretion obtained from the mammary gland of a cow».
After one of the toughest years on record for the dairy industry, farmers feel like their product has been devalued.
«Our milk products have not received the recognition from consumers that we deserve as farmers, for the time and effort that goes into producing them,» Ms Hanratty said.
«Consumers seem willing to pay $2.50 or $5 a litre for tetra pack crushed nut juice, but they are still only prepared to pay $1 a litre for good dairy milk.»
Source: ABC Rural
Link: http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2017-08-10/dairy-farmers-push-to-tighten-use-of-milk-food-labelling/8790294
