Tag: plant-based

AI’s Influence Requires Innovative Response

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

Just a couple years after its wide-scale introduction, Artificial Intelligence, aka AI, has already changed how people create, how they interact with the Internet, and how they interact with one another.

But it’s not without pitfalls: From “hallucinations” to hate speech, the quality of AI answers generated by Large Language Models can vary widely, often illustrating a principle that’s much older than the Internet: Garbage in, garbage out.

How does this affect dairy, where overwhelming mainstream support has been tempered by decades of negative misinformation, often peddled by plant-based imitators trying to make a quick buck by convincing people that their concoctions are superior to milk? Armed with an incognito browser window and an intern (thank you for your research, Presley Wirebaugh), we set out to find out what ChatGPT and other LLMs might say about milk. And what did we find?

In many ways, it wasn’t so bad. When it comes to dairy beverage labels, it turns out that ChatGPT’s “thoughts” aren’t that much different from recent heads of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration — it identifies the problem with nutritional confusion and calls for greater transparency. Answers note that milk is nutritionally superior to plant-based beverages, it understands that consumer confusion over the nutritional benefits of milk vs. plant-based is real, and it notes the value of improved, transparent consumer labeling.

Below is one question we asked. Note that we stooped to calling plant-based beverages a “milk,” as we were mimicking queries from less-informed consumers. Also note that the boldface type in the answers is from ChatGPT’s response:

Which is more nutritious: plant milk or cow milk?

Answer: Cow milk is generally more nutritious than most plant milks, particularly when it comes to natural protein content, calcium, and bioavailable vitamins and minerals.

Here’s another:

How should plant milks be labeled?

Answer: Plant milks should be labeled clearly and accurately so consumers understand what they are buying — especially because they are not nutritionally identical to cow’s milk.

One more:

What should I know about the nutrition of cow’s milk?

Answer: Here’s what you should know about the nutrition of cow’s milk — it’s a naturally nutrient-rich beverage, especially valuable for growth, bone health, and muscle maintenance.

Thank you, ChatGPT.

This good news comes with many caveats, often from what seems to be ChatGPT’s efforts to be even-handed to the point where “fair” actually takes a side. Along with the endorsement of milk’s nutritional value is discussion of how plant-based alternatives can also be healthy. The discussion of labeling stops far from fully endorsing the view that dairy terms should never be used on plant-based beverages. ChatGPT states that:

✅ Bottom Line: Plant-based products should be allowed to use dairy-like names if labels are transparent about their origin and nutrition. This ensures both clarity and choice for consumers.

That sounds a lot like the unworkable half-solution FDA suggested three years ago. Still, after decades of demonization, half-a-loaf is encouraging. And as we’ve always stated, once you’ve accepted the reality of nutritional confusion, the need for change becomes clear. It’s a matter of time, and persistence.

So dairy comes out OK on plant-based labeling. In other areas, the limitations of the models, and the power of anti-dairy propaganda, becomes clear. Here’s an example:

What do people like more — plant milk or dairy?

Answer: Among Gen Z and Millennials, plant milk is often preferred, especially oat and almond milk.

“Often preferred” is a pretty big stretch, given that overall market share of plant-based beverages is under 10% and has been falling for years. Are the AI models scooping up old data? Breathless press releases from struggling plant-based companies? More research required.

Even more challenging is what the answers say about dairy’s sustainability.

Which is better for the environment: plant milk or cow milk?

Answer: Plant milk is significantly better for the environment than cow’s milk — across the board in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and land use.

Ouch.

So — getting out the message of dairy farming’s value as part of regenerative agricultural systems, showing dairy’s progress toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions, optimizing water use, encouraging efficient land use … you know, all the things that go into the FARM Program — plays into winning the battle of a ChatGPT query.

It’s a good story to tell. After all:

  • The U.S. dairy industry was the first in the food agriculture sector to conduct a full Life Cycle Assessment at a national scale, in 2008.
  • According to an assessment released in May, from 2007 to 2020, the greenhouse gas footprint of farmgate milk production decreased by 13%. And …
  • U.S. dairy has set a goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 through developing well-targeted incentives that encourage climate-friendly investments among dairy farmers across all sizes and regions. This comes on top of dairy’s record of animal stewardship and top-level workforce management.

Each individual search, multiplied by thousands per day, every day, adds up to the realities we will increasingly inhabit. And that becomes the new frontier for defining dairy.

This isn’t the AI moment — it’s the AI reality. And just as when the industry has faced past challenges, and just as dairy farmers do every day, innovation will be a must.

 

Dairy’s Pronounced Advantage Over Plant-Based Alternatives

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

“This is a list of ingredients from foods — carrageenan, riboflavin, monosodium glutamate and 20 others that I can’t pronounce.” – HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

This column isn’t here to call out specific food ingredients — carrageenan, for example, has made many an ice cream pint hold together well, proving the value of the raw seaweed extract. But if the idea is to take a more critical look at food ingredients that sound more like science experiments gone bad than healthy, nutritious products, we might just offer one helpful hint: Take a look at the plant-based “dairy” substitutes section and see what you find.

It takes a lot of substances to turn a slurry of chemicals, emollients, emulsifiers, additives and colorings — plus few almonds, oats, etc. — into something that looks like a dairy product. Things like, “mixed tocopherols.” Or “gellan gum,” (which, admittedly, is used in ice cream if you want it to stay stable when placed in flaming alcohol). Or “calcium disodium edta,” (which is also good at treating lead poisoning), among others.

Again, not casting aspersions on anything, just noting that your grandmother probably didn’t talk much about these ingredients over Thanksgiving dinner. Meanwhile, milk is made of… milk, with some vitamin fortification that dates back nearly a century. Cheese is made of… milk, with some additives that follow processes developed over generations. And other dairy products are made of… milk, with whatever else helps keep it safe and stable for consumers who are, in the end, experiencing the same nutrition and wholeness their forebears would have recognized in earlier, less pronunciation-challenged times.

This revelation isn’t anything new: In fact, Dairy Defined did a whole quiz on this theme in 2022 that’s still fun to complete. But it bears repeating as food policy gets a new look. Plant-based products or products derived from the fermentation of a fungus that are engineered to superficially resemble dairy are, by definition, imitations or (poor) substitutes of something that was already out there, already serving a public that understood what it did and what was in it. But in this case, the imposters want to call their product the same thing as the real thing, implying equivalencies in nutrition that just aren’t there and creating confusion in the marketplace.

And that needs to stop.

The last three FDA commissioners, serving both Republicans and Democrats, all recognized the problem — all that’s left is action. Regardless of one’s feelings about specific ingredients or the values they bring to specific foods, being transparent about what something is and what it isn’t, is an important principle from which to build.

Truth in labeling. Not hard to say. And long past time to do.

NMPF’s Bjerga Reviews Milk Consumption Trends

Posted on by Chris Galen

NMPF’s executive vice president Alan Bjerga explains for listeners of Dairy Radio Now how real milk is fighting back against plant-based imitators, with the latest government data demonstrating that milk demand is rising, while fake “milks” are losing market share. Meanwhile, whole milk in particular is in greater demand, as NMPF fights to return it to the school lunch program.

The Move Back to Milk

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

This just in: The sun rose today, people argued over politics … and consumers keep fleeing from plant-based beverages.

That final statement is becoming so obvious that it wouldn’t be worth writing about anymore – if people paid enough attention. But given the strength of misinformation in 2025, let’s say it again: Plant-based beverages are losing market share to milk, as in real, recognizable-to-your-grandmother, dairy-from-a-mammal milk. The 2024 retail data is in. And here’s what the trend shows.

Source: Circana

According to Circana, which tracks retail sales scans, milk’s sales volume relative to plant-based beverages rose again in 2024, with its relative share now at its highest since 2019. While milk consumption stayed essentially flat, plant-based beverage consumption fell for its third consecutive year, with almond and soy continuing to fall and oats going nowhere. Check out that trend, below.

Source: Circana

What does it all mean?

It likely means that consumers are continuing to catch on to the misleading arguments of plant-based beverage purveyors. It means that people who are seeking truly healthy, sustainable products are rediscovering dairy. It also means that the government should catch up to the people it serves by encouraging healthy choices through enforcing its own standards of identity for dairy terms and making it clear that plant-based alternatives don’t provide the nutrition consumers expect from milk.

But even though all the above is true, we’d answer that question with one word: Sanity. After decades of dishonest marketing and open disregard for FDA rules, truth and healthy nutrition are winning. And dairy farmers are happy to keep that positive trend going, by providing the world’s most perfect beverage, one that’s increasingly chosen over the dishonest knockoffs.

Raise your glass, and many more. It’s the increasingly popular thing to do.

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.

Congress can stand up for dairy’s nutrition

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

By Paul Bleiberg, Executive Vice President, Government Relations, National Milk Producers Federation

Milk and dairy products supply 13 essential nutrients, including three that continue to be identified as nutrients of public health concern: calcium, potassium, and vitamin D.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services have historically recognized dairy’s important value in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are updated once every five years and are due next year. The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines should continue to maintain dairy as a distinct food group, one that does not include plant-based imitation products that are not nutritionally equivalent to real milk and do not deliver dairy’s unique nutrient package.

But before the new guidelines are completed, Congress has the opportunity this year to highlight dairy as a nutrition powerhouse that cannot be easily replicated. Below the radar of a tumultuous presidential election year, the bipartisan DAIRY PRIDE Act, introduced in both houses of Congress, has steadily picked up additional support, with nearly 50 members now cosponsoring the House measure.

The DAIRY PRIDE Act directs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enforce dairy standards of identity, which are rooted in dairy’s critical nutrient profile and the fact that milk is the product of an animal that can’t be replicated by substitute ingredients or concocted in a lab. Standards of identity were developed to promote honesty and fair dealing in the interest of consumers. These terms, including “milk” and “cheese,” have come to carry distinct meaning in the minds of consumers, with built-in expectations for nutritional values.

FDA’s continued failure to require the proper labeling of plant-based alternative products is a public health problem, plain and simple. When consumers make misguided, but well-intentioned, decisions to purchase imitation products in place of real dairy, the result will be more and more Americans not meeting the recommended intake of dairy outlined in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Multiple public health organizations have given voice to this concern, urging that young children not be fed most plant-based alternatives in place of real dairy as their nutrition profiles are largely not equivalent.

After years of anticipation, FDA issued proposed guidance last year intended to address this topic. But while the agency acknowledged the nutritional inferiority of most plant-based imitation products relative to real dairy, FDA still made no attempt to dissuade the makers of these products from labeling them using dairy terms – the true cause of consumer confusion.

The DAIRY PRIDE Act would fix this by deeming mislabeled dairy imitators as misbranded. It then would require FDA to promptly require the proper labeling of alternative products – without the unfettered use of dairy terms. This pro-public health, truth-in-labeling bill would spotlight dairy as a unique source of essential, underconsumed nutrients and can swiftly pass Congress before year’s end.

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on Aug. 15, 2024.

Milk’s Lead Rises as Plant-Based Beverages Sink

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The final numbers are in, and they confirm what we’ve anticipated all year. In 2023, consumers emphatically turned away from plant-based beverages at an accelerating rate that caused the category to lose market share to milk, where whole milk and lactose-free varieties are thriving and surpassing their competitors.

The numbers give even more reason to put a stake in all that overprocessed hype – and to push even harder for integrity in labeling beverages that are being abandoned by consumers tired of inferior alternatives to dairy.

With full year data now available from Circana Inc., which tracks grocery-store spending, plant-based beverage consumption in 2023 fell 6.6 percent to 337.7 million gallons. It’s the second straight year of declines and the lowest consumption since 2019.

Sales volumes for almond drinks, the biggest plant-based category, fell 10 percent, and the soy beverages that vegan activists weirdly want in school lunches declined 8 percent. Even the once-Next-Big-Thing, oats, only rose 1.4 percent last year.

Sorry, Oatly – the froth has left your latte, and all that’s left is the drain.

Meanwhile, fluid milk – the real kind – keeps chugging away. To be fair, like plant-based, its consumption also declined, and like plant-based, its sales volume number starts with a 3. However, that 3.137 is followed by the word billion – not million, which is where plant-based is stuck – and the drop was 2.7 percent, less than half the rate of decline for plant-based beverages. That means fluid milk last year lengthened its lead over plant-based. In 2022, fluid milk had 89.9 percent of the pie. In 2023, it rose to 90.3 percent.

Beyond the overall number, fluid milk had more good news. Sales of whole milk, the most popular variety (and the one we need back in schools), rose last year, and lactose-free milk – the one tailor-made for people with dairy sensitivities – jumped 6.7 percent to 239.2 million gallons. With that, lactose-free milk surpassed almonds; it’s now a bigger category on its own than any plant-based alternative.

(You’ll hear a lot about that in the next year. We’ll make certain of it.)

The idea that milk was losing market share because consumers were turning to plant-based alternatives was always off-base. Now, it’s just a lie. And the decline of plant-based beverage isn’t likely to be an aberration: Once the initial hype is gone, and the sustainability claims are debunked, and the nutrition fallacies are exposed, what, exactly, does over-processed sugar water have going for it?

Oh, right, their misleading labels.

For now.

NMPF’s Doud Discusses Dairy’s Future

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

Incoming NMPF President & CEO Gregg Doud explains NMPF’s role in Washington policy formulation and dairy farmer priorities, including a new farm bill, Federal Milk Marketing Order modernization, integrity in plant-based labeling and dietary guidelines that maximize the benefits of dairy, in an interview with RFD-TV. He also emphasized the importance of international trade and global issues to U.S. dairy’s future. “We need to look five, 10 years ahead and see what this industry needs,” he said.

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.

 

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.