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Spilt Milk - Food Naming Rights

Spilt Milk - Food Naming Rights

Seriously, does anyone really care if milk is used broadly as a generic term? Or you can have a lentil burger? Or tofu sausage? Or fishless fish (what?)

The animal based food industry have had their type writers out of archives again and are tapping out their complaint letters, which presumably will be sent to someone who cares. Speaking of old fossils, in late 2018, the wonderful Kerry Lonergan from ABC Landline spent a few merry months waving a red flag at the Vegan bulls over the issue of what should be called 'milk'. He ended up with literally thousands of people joining the debate about what Vegan versions of meat products should be called.

SOMEONE NEEDS TO TELL THE ANIMAL INDUSTRIES THAT THE VEGANS HAVE OVER RUN THE PIG STY AND IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER WHAT YOU CALL THEIR FOOD, THEY ARE GOING TO EAT IT ANYWAY.

Even as our good friend Kerry Lonergan has been stirring up Vegans across the country on ABC Landline, ranting about things being called by their 'proper' names, he is a friend of all farmers and so I suspect that he's really more of a stickler for preciseness than giving a toss about whether someone is an animal or plant lover. Nevertheless, he literally had thousands of punters taking sides, tossing tofu or tuna from respective sides of the naming rights trench.

At the time, things reached fever pitch in the food trenches when someone actually started a Cull Kerry campaign on Twitter. (Which is a little disconcerting as it appears the 'Cull Caller' was a Vegan.) The real story here is why anyone cares what vegan products are called, and the French inadvertently answered that question. 

FRANCE'S APRIL 2018 BAN ON THE USE OF ANY TERM ASSOCIATED WITH MEAT WAS SO WIDE REACHING THAT IT WAS HARD TO MISS THE LARGE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM. THE VERY POWERFUL MEAT INDUSTRY. 

The French now can't even use terms like 'Meat-free', 'Bacon-like' rashers or 'Vegan cheese' to describe non meat products.  The bizarre claim that consumers might be misled by these terms has an accompanying fine of up to $500,000. Even a meat eater would have to struggle with the dis-proportional ridiculousness of that one. 

In Australia, shops like The Cruelty Free Shop sell Fishless Tuna, Fishless Fish Fingers, Field Roast, Vegetarian Duck, Coconut Bacon and on it goes for literally hundreds of mock meat items. Around the world, Pineapple Leather now adorns the arms of many famous men and women as companies like Hugo Boss have joined the likes of Stella McCartney in producing Vegan products (with animal name descriptors, sold at very high prices). 

The Very Good Butcher from British Columbia in Canada actually has a physical Butchery and is so popular that he is now selling Vegan meat substitute products all over the world - even in Australia. (We are trying hard not to look at all the plastic packaging.) Plant butchery is clearly very popular. I wonder if that associated word would be banned in France? 

Milk leadership

Food regulators in the USA recently announced that they were looking to crack down on plant products using the word 'milk'. According to the FDA, milk is "The lacteal secretion, practically free from colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows."

I bet that little definition will set you racing to buy more lacteal secretion for your coffee or wheetbix.

According to reports from the ABC, the suitably qualified FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb acknowledged that "an almond doesn't lactate", so this could mean that soy, almond, macadamia, oat, hemp, rice, quinoa, hazelnut, cashew, and coconut milks, which are clearly not produced by a lactating cow and are going to have to find a new name.

This definition does beg the question of what to call a lactating goat, sheep, llama or camel of course. (One can only hope they remember that one before the new 'Cows Only' line gets drawn down the centre of all USA supermarkets and another border fence built.) 

THIS IS ALL STARTING TO SOUND A BIT LIKE THE TAXIS VERSUS UBER. THE DAIRY INDUSTRY IS SQUAWKING AND THE FAKE MILKERS DON'T CARE, BECAUSE THEY ARE BUSY BUILDING UP THEIR BUSINESSES TO GET EVEN MORE MARKET SHARE. 

Morgan Roy from Jindilli Beverages nailed the bottom line when he said, "We're lucky enough to be able to adapt, and hopefully the dairy industry can adapt to new competitors. We are from the macadamia industry and we've learnt to adapt our own products and go just not from making nuts but we're making macadamia oil, now we're making macadamia milk and we're hopefully going to be branching out into butters and cheeses."

And many Dairy farmers are adapting - setting their own agendas and going directly to consumers and cutting out anyone living on past consumption habits. Companies like Schulz Organic Dairy sell direct, supply bulk milk in reusable containers to businesses and returnable glass bottled milk to consumers. Bass River Dairies have their own Farm Gate cafe and sell all kinds of dairy products direct.


The real issue: If health is your objective, read the label

Unfortunately the real issue here isn't what things are being called. It's what they aren't being called, but should be. With increased consciousness about the way we consume, there will be more Veganism, no matter what anyone says or shouts. 

VEGANS NEED TO BE JUST AS VIGILANT WITH PROCESSED FOOD LABELS AS THEIR PROCESSED ANIMAL FOOD COUNTERPARTS. THE PROBLEM WITH A LOT OF THIS MANUFACTURED FOOD IS THAT IT JUST ISN'T THAT HEALTHY. 

A number of nut and rice milks have so much sugar in them that they should be called sugar flavoured water, before even citing the nuts or rice component. Many of the highly processed meat replacement products are full of fillers, flavours, maskers and preservatives. And that is before you get to the most recent lab based foods like The Impossible Burger, called 'plant based', but actually made by genetically manipulating GMO soy leghemoglobin, an ingredient which, according to Mums Across America, has never before been allowed in the human food supply and has not been properly safety tested.

Fresh is still best and there are all kinds of quality vegan product makers who care about your health. 

Make sure you read the contents label carefully.

Fish Fingers

We can't let the food naming war report end without checking in on the 'Fingers'. VBites make Fishless Fish Fingers presumably have no fish or fingers in them. AND Bird's Eye Fish Fingers just scrapes across the line into Fish Naming Rights eligibility, with 51% Hoki by content. No mention of fingers.

Image: The Very Good Butcher

 

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