Among the pressing concerns on Congressman Dusty Johnson’s mind is protecting South Dakota’s big factory dairies from competition from alternative milkish products:
Despite these successes, dairy farmers in South Dakota are still facing hardships because of the pandemic, and they need our support now more than ever.
That is why I cosponsored the DAIRY PRIDE Act, a bill that would require manufacturers of plant-based foods and beverages to stop mislabeling their products as dairy products. Many non-dairy items have the words “milk,” “yogurt,” and “cheese” on their labels, when in reality they do not meet the FDA’s definition of dairy and do not possess the specific nutritional values found in real dairy products.
The DAIRY PRIDE Act benefits both dairy producers and confused consumers across the United States by simply requiring the FDA to follow their own rules. After a year of braving extreme demand disruptions and plummeting market prices, this is the boost our dairy producers deserve [Rep. Dusty Johnson, “Lactose Tolerant,” Black Hills Pioneer, 2021.06.05].
Congressman Johnson, let me ease your fears: I’m not confused, and neither is any other consumer. I know the bottle of “almond milk” that appeared in my fridge last week is not the milk I want on my peanut-butter puffs. Most people paying extra cash for soy milk, almond milk, and other plant-based substitutes know full well they aren’t buying mammary excretions. Passing a law banning almond- and coconut-juice makers from putting “milk” on their jugs won’t make lactose-intolerant consumers go back to buying dairy products.
Congressman Johnson and I perhaps both have prejudices we need to shed, as plant-based milk does a planet good:
These shifts from traditional to plant-based dairy are important in the fight against climate change, as traditional dairy is an especially resource-intensive sector. According to a 2018 University of Oxford study, any way you slice it, cow’s milk uses much more land and water and emits far more greenhouse gases than any plant-based milk. For example, almond milk gets a bad rap for being water-intensive, but cow’s milk requires about 70 percent more water to produce, emits more than twice as much Co2, and requires more than 15 times as much land. Compared to almond milk, oat milk uses much less water but a little more land.
On top of the environmental impact of traditional dairy, most dairy cows, at least in the US, are raised in factory farms [Kenny Torrella, “Where’s the ‘Impossible Burger’ of Cheese?” Vox, 2021.06.05].
Calling almond milk and its ilk “milk” isn’t confusing anybody, and the name on the bottle isn’t hurting dairy producers. If dairy is losing market share to plant-based products, that’s just the market at work… and in this case, probably for the better.
Dairies have faced plunging milk prices long before drumpf’s hoax ever manifested itself. And drumpf’s self imposed trade wars did nothing to help dairy farmers whatsoever.
And congressweasel Devin Numbnut’s family dairy still uses undocumented workers. I’m certain Northern Mississippi dairies do the same to hold down costs.
As someone who’s been lactose intolerant her entire 65+ years on this planet (the only kid who couldn’t eat ice cream in my world), I wrote back to Dusty on this one to inform him that we all definitely know the difference between oat milk and cow’s milk, and many of us choose the oat / almond / soy milk for health reasons. And I asked if he couldn’t find something useful to do with his time. Have heard nothing back yet.
Doesn’t he have something better to do?
yeah so when my wife was feeding our babies with milk from her breasts, where was dusty to tell us that we shouldn’t call that milk because it wasn’t pulled from a non-consenting cow? Look – i get the point – industries want to defend themselves… but the word MILK is a lot more broad than the word DAIRY. Everyone knows about soy milk and goat milk and every other type of milk. Everyone knows there is DAIRY FREE cheese and yogurt. Those words describe a product, not the ingredients in the product. If dusty wants to kiss the butt of the dairy industry, fine, but he should at least protect the use of the word DAIRY (which nobody is abusing, by the way). Trying to pretend that MILK is exclusively and forever linked to COW is ignorant, and also a waste of time.
He’d serve himself and us better if he changed his name from “Dusty” Johnson to “Dusty” Plain.
These politicians becoming parroting mouthpieces seeking $$$ by ‘conning’ dairy farmers like Tr—- and a failed ‘university’, ‘big lie’ and many small lies seem to need a Pinocchio nose-job daily!
Has lunch w/ someone (my 1st outing since…) who ordered a BIG glass of dairy milk. Hadn’t seen that coming.
DMVs, courts and state offices in Alabama are closed today to commemorate Jefferson Davis’ birthday…
D-student, college dropout (after one semester) Madison Cawthorn again attempted to give a lesson in constitutional law at the NC GOP convention this weekend. Not so much.
Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block Election-Reform: On a leaked conference call, leaders of dark-money groups and a McConnell aide expressed frustration with the popularity of the For the People Act—even among Republican voters.
Critical Race Theory seems important in our white man’s right wing playground of USA.
I dig almonds (but scary water consumers!) more than cows. But i do like strong bones.
Best Banana Milk: Mooala Organic Bananamilk at Amazon $3.59 per 48 oz
Once you try banana milk, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.
Best Hemp Milk: Pacific Foods Hemp Original Unsweetened Plant-Based Milk at Amazon $3.29 per 32 oz
Unlike nut-based milk, it’s very allergen-friendly.
Come on, he’s from the party of freedom fries, at least this isn’t as cheesy.
Dusty’s quote is:
‘After a year of braving extreme demand disruptions and plummeting market prices, this is the boost our dairy producers deserve’
Capitalism or Socialism?
Dusty is just “milking” the public teat.
Dusty Musty is singing an old tune as per the below link. He’s trying to surf on a forgotten past, forgotten or so he hopes insofar as his hope is that people will credit him for his novel legislation which champions the dairy industry.
Soy milk, cashew milk, almond milk, rice milk—the adjectival qualifiers are unequivocal on their respective labels.
What requires qualification is the unqualified label on that gallon of 2 percent that says simply “milk” when it would best require the qualifying adjective “cow” (or “lacteal” as that would equally do), a qualification nowhere found on any label of lacteal origin.
Get with it, Musty.
https://fee.org/articles/the-fda-thinks-you-dont-know-that-soy-milk-doesnt-come-from-cows/
Well..its the old story “Entering South Dakota, turn your clock back 50 years”. Now, I like milk, half and half, cow milk. My wife can’t handle it so I’ve got a fridge full of Almond milk, Oat milk, Organic such and such etc. Its a huge diverse market, out there in dairyland and in sort of dairyland. Dusty needs to wake up and look about…its 2021, not 1951.I know a Republican isn’t allowed to use the word, but dairies need to diversify.
I second your commet Arlo. Great commet! I couldn’t have said it better. If the dairy industry wants to increase milk consumption, they should invest in lactose intolerance research. I wish I could drink milk and eat cheese without consequences, but glad there are options. Dusty leave my options alone. The dairy industry is just fine.
The United States is the world’s top almond producer. California is almond country; South Dakota’s climate would need to be more Mediterranean to grow such milky nuts.
But American farmers make money growing almonds just like they do milking cows, minus the massive manure ponds and some rotten work hours. Why would Dusty want to propose legislation apparently designed to hurt one group of farmers?
Imagine if global warming makes this June weather stick around in South Dakota until October or November and almond farms spring up along the Big Sioux. Would Dusty stand in the way of the development of South Dakota almond farms?
Milkweed isn’t dairy based. Relabel it.
This is what passes for Republican food policy these days. “Food security” to them means securing the word “food” for something that is masticated, swallowed and digested. No “food for thought” allowed, apparently.
This nonsense was big in Wisconsin a couple years ago. Rather than deal with real issues, it’s stuff like the state insect or what we call extracts from nuts. Wait, “Extracts from Nuts” sounds like the speeches from the South Dakota Congressional Delegation.
Must be an election coming up fairly soon so the grift must go on.
Some of you make the assertion that everyone knows that X is not Y. But my experience has been different. My wife is lactose intolerant, so we buy some vegan cheese-like stuff (which is mostly potato & corn starch = good for farmers) and almond milk.
The learning curve wasn’t the worst, but it was a learning curve to figure out which products (especially the butter substitutes) were suitable. Part of this is a placement issue – when you put the non-dairy alternatives right next to the dairy products, it’s easier to get confused on whether it’s butter, margarine, or something else you’re picking up. The Milk issue is less problematic because typically the labeling is very clear that it’s Soy, Oat, Almost, etc. Some of it is part of the challenge of how stores lay out products; we’ve had Hy-Vee’s “personal shopper” service grab a poor substitute because the organic butter is located right next to the vegan options, and the packaging is not clear.
But man, it would have been nicer if there was a lexicon to describe dairy-free butter, milk, cream cheese, or yogurts that didn’t rely on the dairy products. Especially since some products are marketed as one thing, but actually closer to the taste / consistency profile of another (I’m thinking of a particular “sour cream” that has a profile closer to greek yogurt).
It’s kinda like the difference between gasoline, diesel, and kerosene. All are fuels and will burn, but have very different properties and function differently.
It may be a minor inconvenience for someone to buy Silk thinking it was chocolate cow juice, but it might be a horrible day of cramps for the lactose intolerant to have those roles reversed because they (or the young store employee) were confused over brands & labels.
Moar magat tomfoolery ala Louis Gohmert asking Forest Service if they can change the orbits of Earth and Moon to fight climate change. I kid you not. Must have been chatting with at least two trolls at DFP.
https://www.rawstory.com/louie-gohmert-climate-change/
A gallon of H2O per nut! Gadzooks :)
Still, the water it takes to grow any vegetable, fruit or nut is a mere fraction of what is required to raise animal protein. An L.A. Times chart on water usage details the differences: It takes more than 106 gallons of water, experts say, to produce one ounce of beef. LA Times 2015.
The almond assn will tell yah: “the shell and the hull — are put to efficient agricultural use. Shells, a hard wood, have all sorts of uses — fireplace logs, animal bedding.
Hulls are used as feed for dairy cattle. So almonds help make milk.
Tons of dead almond trees are ground up and used as biomass fuel for cogeneration plants. So almonds help make electricity.
Trees absorb carbon dioxide. So almonds help clean the Central Valley [air’s pollution.]”
Prolly old news to the rest of us!
My burning question is .. did he win?