Dairy to nut farmers: Stop ‘milking’ industry

Al Overland is not saying you should refer to almond milk as nut juice. He’s also not saying you shouldn’t.

“I’ve heard it called that,” said Overland, a dairy farmer near Sturgeon Lake, Minn. “They can call it juice or beverage, or whatever they wish, but we just don’t want them to call it milk.”

Dairy farmers, who are struggling with widespread industry consolidation, low prices and declining demand, are becoming even more fed up with all the nondairy products in the grocery store labeled as milk.

The number of different types of “milk” available to consumers has ballooned in recent years. First it was soy, then almond milk, coconut milk and rice milk. Now there’s oat milk and pea milk.

The Food and Drug Administration is mulling whether to update its rules for how to label plant-based foods, and has been lobbied hard by both dairy and plant-based producers. A four-month public comment period closed at the end of January, and 8,624 comments were submitted.

Dairy groups say the FDA has allowed an “anything goes mentality in the marketplace.”

Plant-based groups say the objections are much ado about nothing, and would disrupt the marketplace.

“This entire exercise is a solution in search of a problem,” said Michele Simon, executive director of Plant Based Food Association. “At a time when resources are scarce, our federal government should not be concerned with how ‘almond milk’ is labeled. Aren’t there higher priorities, such as the safety of our food supply, for FDA to worry about?”

A spokeswoman from the FDA said the agency has not set a date for a decision on labeling rules “but will carefully consider the comments before determining next steps.”