The word “moron” has cropped up a few times regarding a proposed bill by U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. It’s called the Dairy Pride Act, and it would outlaw the use of dairy terms for nondairy products. Under the proposal, such things as coconut milk, almond milk, soy milk, etc., could no longer be called “milk.” Instead, they’d have to be referred to as beverages, such as "almond beverage," or "coconut beverage." But even a dairy organization thinks the idea is inane.
Consider these two tweets:
1 “John Fetterman apparently thinks consumers are morons,” responded Paul Sherman, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice. “Everyone knows ‘almond milk’ is not a dairy product.”
2 “Senator, that bill makes it illegal to market ‘coconut milk’ as ‘coconut milk,'” added Shoshana Weissmann, digital director of the R Street Institute, a libertarian think tank. “That’s moronic.”
Both comments were in response to a Fetterman tweet: “In Congress, I’m fighting to pass the DAIRY PRIDE Act. This bill will protect our dairy farmers by prohibiting non-dairy products from using dairy names.” And both comments were included in a Reason.com article that was reprinted in a Dairy News article with the headline “No one is too dumb to understand that vegan ‘milk’ isn’t dairy.”
Of course, there are senators who support the bill. Consider this by Idaho Republican Sen. Jim Risch: “This dishonest branding is misleading to consumers and a disservice to the dairy farmers who have committed their lives to making milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and more nutritious products.”
That, too, was in the article, but so was some sanity: “Contrary to pro-dairy talking points, it simply isn’t true that consumers are particularly confused by plant-based milk labeling. According to a 2018 survey, 75 percent of respondents understood that soy milk and almond milk don’t contain cow’s milk, while only 9 percent said that the beverages contained dairy.”
The article continues by saying the word “milk” has been used for centuries to describe alternatives to dairy-based milk. It cites a Smithsonian magazine that said there was a recipe for almond “milk” to be used instead of dairy milk during Lent.
I’ll borrow a phrase from the great sage Bart Simpson and tell Messrs. Fetterman and Risch, “Don’t have a cow, man.”
The two of them should go out for lunch, maybe have a yummy sandwich of peanut paste and jelly with a glass of bovine mammary juice.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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