The "How Do You Milk An Almond? How About A Pea?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Trying to figure out how you can call a beverage made of almonds that were soaked in water, strained and placed in a container...milk!  Now, I know I may be slightly prejudiced since I live in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania which is considered the "Garden Spot of America" and which has a very high percentage of farmers, particularly Amish farmers.  

Truly milk according to the FDA.

And, many of these farmers have cows that produce real milk which is "the lacteal secretion, practically free from colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows.  There are Federal regulations that state "milk" is obtained from animals.  Doesn't have to be a dairy cow, but it must be an animal.  Not a nut!  Over the years more and more products have been called "milk" when they do not meet Federal standards to be called milk.  First there was soy milk, then came almond milk and not there is also coconut milk, rice milk and cashew milk.  Oh yeah...I forgot about oat milk and pea milk.  Have you heard of pea milk yet?  It is actually made from yellow peas that have the nutrients taken out of them and then blended with water and sunflower oil, leaving a taste that's pretty similar to almond milk.  Ugh, gross!  

Pure coconut milk.

The fact that all these other products can be called milk is giving dairy farmers fits.  Their sales dropped last year 4% while plant based beverages labeled "milk" have grown by 8%.  I have no problem with them growing by 8%, but there is no way you should call them "milk".  Just isn't kosher!  The director of the plant based food association wants the FDA to abide by free market principles and not restrict labeling to unfairly favor the dairy industry.  But, the word "Milk", according to FDA regulations passed years ago, are specific in the wording of what constitutes "milk."  As I said before, "milk" is obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows.  What's that have to do with peas, oats, almonds, etc.?  

Oat milk.  You got to be kidding!
No way would I dunk cookies in this stuff!

Lancaster dairy farmers, as well as dairy farmers all over the U.S. have spent plenty of money over the years promoting their product as the nutritional product that it is, and they claim the plant-based products are taking advantage of that by labeling their beverages "milk".  And now, farmers who raise and milk cows are beginning to struggle to make ends meet and stay in business.  Are you prepared to dunk your donuts in pea milk?  How gross would that be?  OMG!!  The FDA needs to enforce their guidelines established a long time ago and make these plant-based products change their name to something other than "milk".  They should petition the FDA with a new name that can only be used for plant-based liquids.  I will end my "milk" campaign by telling you that I recently read a story about Almond milk, listing it's seven benefits.  Benefit #4 was... It is dairy-free and contains no animal products.  Exactly what the FDA said should not be called "milk".  I rest my case!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.