They’ve introduced a measure intended to support dairy farmers facing hard times. Milk prices have plunged since 2014. Farmers dumped millions of gallons of excess milk last year, and in October the U.S. Department of Agriculture agreed to buy $20 million in cheddar cheese to prop up dairy farmers.
Duffy, a Republican, highlighted the drop in milk prices Tuesday in announcing a bill that would require the Food and Drug Administration to keep the word «milk» off the labels of «plant-based beverages.»
Most consumers know such products as almond milk, or soy milk. There’s also cashew milk and a number of other variations popping up on grocery store shelves.
«You can’t milk an almond; that’s why I urge the FDA to clarify and enforce the definition of milk they already have on the books,» Duffy said in a statement Tuesday. «Milk comes from cows! Wisconsin dairy farmers and consumers across the country deserve this important clarification.»
But according to a representative in the soy industry, that clarification is unnecessary.
«There isn’t confusion,» said Nancy Chapman, executive director of the Soyfoods Association of North America. «Soy milk is a different product. … It’s never been a look-alike.»
People choose soy milk rather than cow’s milk for religious or dietary reasons, she said. «I would say, soy milk is not the competitor.»
Twenty years ago the Soyfoods Association asked the FDA to recognize «soymilk» as a «common or usual name,» Chapman said. The FDA never made a determination on that petition. Soy milk was patented in the U.S. in the late 1800s, she said.
«It’s been used for a long time, used internationally,» Chapman said of the term.
On Jan. 12, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, sponsored a Senate bill called the DAIRY PRIDE Act to «require enforcement against misbranded milk alternatives.»
Duffy, who’s the co-chairman of the Congressional Dairy Farmers Caucus, introduced similar legislation in the House on Tuesday.
In mid-December, 32 members of Congress sent a letter to the FDA highlighting the definition of milk as a «lacteal secretion» and urging enforcement against «imitation plant-based products.» Duffy signed the letter, as did a number of other Wisconsin representatives: Democrat Mark Pocan, Republican Glenn Grothman, Democrat Ron Kind, Republican Jim Sensenbrenner and the now-retired Republican Reid Ribble.
«While consumers are entitled to choose imitation products,» states the letter, «it is misleading and illegal for manufacturers of these items to profit from the ‘milk’ name.»
Source: SheboyganPress
Link: http://www.sheboyganpress.com/story/news/2017/01/31/wisconsin-lawmakers-milk-means-dairy/97307324/
