Incensed by the growing sales of soy, rice and almond milk in grocery stores, many dairy farmers are coming forward and asking that term “milk” be reserved for milk from cow, goat, sheep, water buffalo and other mammals.
“Milk comes from breasts and not from plants”, one farmer told us. ” I don’t know why grocery stores will allow the other liquids be called milk. They are not milk”
“Everything that is white and liquid is now called milk. First we had coconut milk, then soy milk, then rice milk, and now almond milk. What is next? Potato milk?”, asked an angry farmer?
In support of their efforts, the Dairy Farmer Association has written the Obama administration to convey its displeasure over the misuse of the Milk term.
Asked to respond to the dairy farmers’ complaint, a prominent soy milk producer told us that it was simply sour grapes. “These dairy farmers wanted to make their own soy milk but the Chinese government refused to sell them soy”, the producer said.
“It is cheaper and more cost effective to make soy or rice milk”, another soy milk distributor told us. “The dairy farmers are angry because cows are becoming more temperamental and sometimes refuse to give these farmers enough milk, especially when they are fed cheap grass.”, the soy milk distributor added.
Asked to respond to the dairy farmers’ complaint, an official with the Obama administration told us that she was monitoring the situation.”We are waiting for the trademark office to tell us who owns the name Milk”, she said.
Meanwhile, an official with a large association of grocery stores told us that they don’t have any intention to stop selling soy or rice milk in their stores. “Whether it is called avocado or mango milk, as long as the public thinks it is milk and buys it, we sell it.”, the official said.
