CWA backs push to ban ‘plant’ milks

THE Country Women’s Association has backed a push to ban manufacturers of “plantbased” drinks from calling their products “milk”, arguing it’s hurting dairy farmers and confusing the public into thinking the products are of comparable nutritional value.

At the NSW CWA’s annual state conference yesterday, members voted unanimously in favour of a motion to lobby state and federal authorities to “enforce legislation … to stop plant-based drinks from using the term ‘milk’ in the labelling of their product”.

This would affect the labelling of products such as soy, almond and rice milk.

“Fresh milk is a premium quality, short shelf-life food of immense nutritional value that has for generations been a fundamental pillar of the Australian rural and regional economies and communities,” reads the motion, submitted by the Morpeth Branch, Hunter River Group.

Morpeth Branch president Dianne Innes said the definition of milk according to state and federal legislation refers to secretion from mammary glands, adding: “Soy beans don’t have mammary glands”.