Tag: fake milk

Lab-Based Dairy is So Boring

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

It’s strange to admit, but as more and more consumers react negatively to the lack of nutrition and marketing honesty in plant-based and lab-based beverages, news of their falling sales, struggling stock prices and consumer skepticism has become almost … boring.  

But being boring is one thing. Being Bored is another level entirely. Let’s explain. 

Two years ago, when “lab-based” milk seemed to be promising some more of the same mislabeling craziness that plant-based dairy imposters have been foisting on consumers for decades, an over-hyped beverage called “Bored Cow” entered the marketplace.  

Promising “animal-free dairy milk,” (which, per FDA standards of identity, is impossible), Bored Cow played the same trick as other purported lab-based milk imitators — it fermented one dairy protein (out of hundreds of milk’s total chemical components), added a bunch of other stuff to it, and decided to market it as milk, complete with spurious sustainability claims and promises to “fix our food system,” etc.  

NMPF complained to the FDA, and, as has been customary with FDA for the past several decades when it comes to dairy terms, very little happened. But another place where little seems to be happening is … Bored Cow’s sales. Once the hype died down, did Bored Cow just … wander away? 

A look at the company website, tryboredcow.com, returns a message saying “Sorry, this store is unavailable.” Same thing happens to the website of one of its two corporate parents, the venture-capital-established Tomorrow Farms. Bored Cow’s Instagram page was last updated last August.  

Perfect Day, the other entity from which Bored Cow was spawned, at least still has an active web presence. The company is active enough, in fact, to get sued by the Organic Consumers Association for peddling Bored Cow as milk when it’s actually, as alleged in the lawsuit, about 87% fungus, among other things. (You can see why they’d prefer to associate with dairy, with limited fungus demand among American beverage consumers.) According to an article detailing the suit, Bored Cow has become a bit of a distraction for Perfect Day, which in 2023 pivoted to building business-to-business relationships with large consumer products companies and didn’t want to focus on brands. 

Multiple requests for comment from Perfect Day were not returned. Bored Cow doesn’t seem to have any contact information.  

To be sure, Bored Cow still seems to exist. Target and Walmart are selling it, and UberEats says it can deliver you some in an hour if you’d like. But if this is the lab-based revolution, it’s a bit underwhelming. Sales of real milk are up, dairy investment is booming, and the return to milk (and the turning away from alternatives) is genuine. Proving yet again that reports of the death of dairy a few years ago were greatly exaggerated. Now it seems like it’s the one-time wave of the future that’s on life support.  

An interesting thought. But it’s also one that’s become so obvious that’s it’s getting a little … you know.   

Dairy Radio Now Listeners Learn of House Hearing Examining FDA Labeling Failure

Posted on by Chris Galen

NMPF’s Executive Vice President Paul Bleiberg explains for Dairy Radio Now listeners why the House of Representatives held a hearing this week to examine how the Food and Drug Administration is focusing its resources. Bleiberg said Deputy FDA Commissioner Jim Jones faced scrutiny from lawmakers about the agency’s failure to enforce standards of identity for the labeling of plant-based dairy imitators, a point NMPF has been raising for years.

Overcoming challenges is what we do

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

By Randy Mooney, Chairman, NMPF Board of Directors

We’ve had a lot of achievements this year, but it’s also been a challenging time.

A year ago, costs on the farm were extremely high, but we had prices that would cover that. This year, costs are still high, but prices are down. That’s a lot of stress on the farm. And we’re also dealing with problems that we’ve dealt with for years.

There are labor problems; you just can’t find anybody to work. Supply chain disruptions are closer to the farm this year. It’s milk trucks getting milk off the farm; it’s feed trucks bringing feed into the farm. It’s getting simple parts that we took for granted we could get anytime we wanted to. There are geopolitical issues and extreme weather events.

We have challenges all the time, but it just seems like we continue to have more. It seems like we’re in the eye of a storm. But as farmers, we always anticipate a moment before the dawn, before things turn, before things get good again.

One of the things I’ve learned is that a lot of the world is envious of what we have.

They’re envious because we have the Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Program, a self-governing program. We have a government that recognizes what we’re doing with sustainability — it’s not being mandated down from the top.

We’re taking care of our own. Today, we produce more milk using fewer and fewer natural resources. We’re revitalizing rural communities. For every dollar generated in dairy farming, it turns over three to seven times in local communities, generating $750 billion in the United States. That‘s pretty impressive.

We’re nourishing families around the world through milk’s unbeatable nutritional value. I’ve dairy farmed for a long time, through good times and bad times, but there’s never been a time that I haven’t laid my head down on my pillow at night and been proud of what I accomplished on my farm. We’re putting the most nourishing, most nutritious product known to man in that milk tank. And when that truck leaves, I know I’ve done something good.

Our ability to evolve how we work and adapt our resiliency is becoming more and more important. This year, we came together as an industry to unite around issues that helped build that resiliency. NMPF worked with member co-ops, farm bureaus, and state dairy organizations to come to consensus on the most substantial issues. Even going back to 2021, when you talk about Federal Milk Marketing Order modernization, we’ve worked hard to get these things done. Nobody knows what the outcome’s going to be, but you telling your story has made a difference.

Beyond that, we’re going to get a farm bill passed — we’re going have an extension. We’ve been working to implement the next version of FARM, FARM 5.0, that goes into effect in July. We also will work on promoting dairy’s sustainable nutrition. Dairy offers the most complete nutritional package available, and what’s amazing is that as we produce more milk, we’ll continue to use fewer natural resources. That’s the definition of sustainable nutrition.

For years, we’ve talked about sustainability in terms of environmental stewardship and how that translates into financial value for farms. Now, the financial values are there. You take solar panels, wind, methane digesters, and a lot of things happen on a farm that’s generating electricity to run your farms and to run your neighbor’s households. We’re there now. What we need is conservation funding in the farm bill through USDA grants through state and federal programs. There’s real money available to help us continue to do that, and we will.

No imitation food from a nut, a bean, or grain can hold a candle to dairy’s nutritional package. We all know that. That’s why it’s important to keep fighting the fight on plant-based alternative labeling. In the guidance that was issued earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognized and admitted that plant-based alternatives are nutritionally inferior to real dairy.

Dairy protein plays a critical role in feeding people around the world, and it can’t be replaced by alternatives, including plant-based. Consumers have the right to understand how they’re nourishing their families, and we’re going to continue to advocate for the Dairy PRIDE Act to try to get that passed in Congress.

We’re going to continue to fight for more flavored milk in schools and higher fat levels, especially for those children whose main source of nutrition is through the school milk program. Milk is essential to their diets, and we’re not going to give up that fight. We’re all part of an industry that’s doing remarkable things. We are winning.

This has been adapted from Chairman of the NMPF Board of Directors Randy Mooney’s speech at the National Milk Producers Federation annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 14, 2023. This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on Nov. 22, 2023.

NMPF’s Bjerga on Why Milk’s Widening Its Lead Over Plant-Based Beverages

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

NMPF Senior Vice President of Communications discusses the shifting consumer preference toward milk over plant-based beverages, plus NMPF’s latest efforts toward labeling integrity, on RFD-TV. Consumer data shows consumption of plant-based drinks falling this year, while milk sales are remaining more stable. Meanwhile, NMPF has submitted comments to FDA urging it to enforce its Standard of Identity that clearly state that milk is an animal product.

 

Lab-based ‘milk’ Labeling Fight Is Here

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

By Clay Detlefsen, Chief Counsel, NMPF

One would think that four decades’ worth of lessons would lead to some truths being learned. But as laboratory-based dairy imitators enter the marketplace, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seems poised to repeat the same mistakes it has made with plant-based beverages, in which their labels mislead consumers into confusing one thing with something very different.

At issue is a product called “Bored Cow,” which markets itself as “milk.” While the product does include a whey protein that’s the product of fermentation in a laboratory setting, other elements on its long list of exotic ingredients show what should be obvious to every consumer: This isn’t milk as nature has ever known it.

NMPF has been fighting with FDA over its lack of enforcement of dairy standards of identity for decades. What Bored Cow is doing is taking one whey protein that’s synthetically made by precision fermentation, blending that with a myriad of other food ingredients that are quite disgusting-sounding in many cases, and calling the product “dairy milk.”

That’s the wrong description for what they’re selling.

Milk has 13 essential nutrients. It contains 400 different fatty acids. It has got two categories of proteins, casein and whey, numerous micronutrients, and it’s an incredibly complex matrix that delivers an enormous nutritional package for consumers. You cannot replicate that in a laboratory. Milk is natural and it’s good for you. And you can’t duplicate what comes from a cow in a stainless steel vat.

But so far, FDA is allowing this violation of its standards of identity to persist, though finally after decades of inaction, FDA has gotten the message that consumers are confused and misled about the nutritional inferiority of most if not all plant-based milk alternatives. We are still hopeful FDA will step up and enforce its rules. Earlier this year, FDA proposed a voluntary labeling guidance in which they ask marketers of plant-based milk alternatives to voluntarily disclose their products’ nutritional offerings and, in most cases, those products’ nutritional inferiorities.

While NMPF appreciates the more explicit side-by-side comparison, the overall FDA guidance is flawed and we want it withdrawn. When it comes to Bored Cow and its one synthesized dairy protein, we are concerned that this, too, is a nutritionally inferior imitator that will mislead consumers and deliver a mediocre product that could harm human health.

One caveat that lab-based companies are using to distinguish themselves from plant-based imitators is that their products include one component of dairy milk. While that’s the case, it doesn’t change how very different in overall composition these products actually are — the same fundamental challenge that is also at the root of concerns over plant-based labeling. In both cases, processors are largely ignoring existing rules and regulations and doing whatever they want — not in the consumer’s interest but in their own. It’s sloppy, lazy marketing and it needs to stop.

As with plant-based foods, FDA needs to enforce its rules and regulations and send a clear message to the plant-based folks, and now the synthetic “milk” processors, that the dairy rules are on the books, and they, like everyone else, have to follow them. Otherwise, the integrity of the marketplace — and the FDA’s role as the protector of consumer interests — will continue to erode. That’s not what consumers deserve. And it’s completely preventable — if only, after four decades, FDA finally learns.

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on July 31, 2023.

NMPF’s Detlefsen on the Scourge of Lab-Based Milk Imposters

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

 

NMPF Chief Counsel Clay Detlefsen discusses the even more urgent need for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to enforce beverage standards of identity as lab-based milk imposters try to use dairy terms in the marketplace. “Milk has got 13 essential nutrients. It’s got 400 different fatty acids. It’s got two categories of proteins, casein and whey, numerous micronutrients,” he said. “You cannot replicate that in a laboratory or elsewhere. I mean milk is milk. It’s natural, and it’s good for you. And you can’t duplicate that in the lab.” Detlefsen spoke in an interview with the National Association of Farm Broadcasters.

NMPF’s Bjerga on Fair Nutrition Access in Federal Programs

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

 

NMPF Senior Vice President of Communications Alan Bjerga talks about the importance of equal nutrition for all — and how milk in both regular and lactose-free options can assist in that goal — is a bedrock principle in federal nutrition programs. Bjerga also updates on the latest in NMPF’s comment campaign regarding the FDA’s draft guidance for proper terminology in plant-based beverages, discussing the topics in an interview with RFD-TV.

FDA Guidance an Incomplete Win for Dairy

Posted on by Alan Bjerga
By Alan Bjerga, Senior Vice President, Communications, National Milk Producers Federation 

FDA’s split-decision draft guidance on plant-based beverage labeling offered last month gave everyone something to be mad about. For dairy producers and consumers, the fact the agency would allow plant-based beverages to call themselves “milk” is unacceptable. For plant-based beverage manufacturers, guidance that they should disclose their nutritional inferiorities prominently on the packaging makes using a dairy term much less attractive. And even though the guidance is voluntary — and thus in theory could be ignored — companies that want to stay on FDA’s good side and avoid being called out on their noncompliance by dairy’s defenders have the incentive to either follow the guidance or sidestep the issue completely by avoiding dairy terms altogether. Either way, consumers win.That makes dairy the net winner in the decision, however incomplete it may be. Crucially, FDA is accepting the National Milk Producers Federation’s core argument — that ample consumer research shows that consumers are confused over the nutritional content of plant-based beverages and the need for labeling. And that provides a great opportunity for dairy and consumers to make progress in achieving the logical outcome of that acceptance — ending altogether the mislabeling of plant-based beverages that’s plagued the U.S. market for more than four decades.

It’s much easier to win a debate when the premise of the debate is set on your own terms. Decades of calling on the FDA to enforce its own standard of identity for milk mostly fell on deaf ears. Even if dairy’s argument was clearly correct, FDA could choose to do nothing about it, and doing nothing was a task in which FDA excelled.

As plant-based beverages proliferated and it became clear that stolen dairy terms encouraged consumers to assume an incorrect nutritional profile for these products, nutritional confusion among consumers has become a public health issue the agency simply can’t ignore. And to its credit, FDA’s guidance, for all its flaws, is an attempt to seriously address a problem it began to acknowledge only in the past half-decade.

But now that the agency has acknowledged the problems and offered guidance, it will be critical to keep up the pressure to follow this progress to a successful conclusion. Consumers, dairy producers, and their allies need to make sure FDA’s approach isn’t weakened, and then to make sure that now that our analysis of the problem has been accepted, the logical solution of that analysis – limiting dairy terms only to dairy products – is the eventual outcome.

On the first point, FDA has opened its guidance up for public comment. NMPF has set up its own simple guide on how to submit a comment. Through this form, members of the public can either personalize their own message to FDA or have access to resources that will help them write their own comments from scratch.

On the second point, we are advocating for congressional passage of the DAIRY PRIDE Act, which has been introduced in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. The legislation would require FDA to enforce its standard of identity for milk, solving the problem at its root.

The fight for labeling integrity has taken patience and persistence. But progress is real, and with momentum on our side, we can make a real difference in the marketplace for public health. Please consider joining us in this effort.

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on March 20, 2023.

NMPF’s Bjerga on Plant-Based vs. Lab-Based Labeling Concerns

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

 

NMPF Senior Vice President of Communications Alan Bjerga discusses the differing challenges of plant-based beverages that use dairy terms vs. lab-created dairy alternatives using a replicated dairy protein, in an interview with WEKZ radio in Janesville, WI. While plant-based beverages have widely divergent nutritional profiles, lab-based dairy does incorporate actual dairy — but doesn’t duplicate the complex interactions and processes that create a true dairy product.

NMPF’s Bjerga on Next Steps on Plant-Based Labeling

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

 

NMPF Senior Vice President for Communications Alan Bjerga discusses next steps in the effort to bring transparency to plant-based beverage labeling in an interview with the National Association of Farm Broadcasters. While the FDA’s proposed guidance accepts dairy’s core argument — that beverages that falsely call themselves “milk” falsely imply a similar nutritional profile — the acceptance of such terms, even with disclaimers, still falls short of recognizing FDA’s own standards of identity and ending the confusion once and for all. That makes efforts such as congressional passage of the DAIRY PRIDE Act all the more essential, he said.