Several companies want to take advantage of the good name and healthful qualities of real milk from dairy cows. For example, just go to the dairy case in your favorite food store and look at what you find. Along with plentiful supplies of real milk are some other drinks labeled as milk, but which are not really milk or never really saw a cow.
These drinks may be in containers like milk containers and labeled “soy milk” or perhaps “almond” or “rice milk.” There are other drinks so labeled, but they are also not real milk.
Most dictionaries define milk as “a fluid secreted by the mammary glands of females.” That says that cow’s milk is the only real milk in the dairy case of most stores.
So, why are the companies that make these drinks calling them “milks”? Because they want to take advantage of the good name and healthful qualities of cow’s milk. By advertising these drinks as milk, they want to ride on the coat tails and on the good name of milk.
While these drinks may have a place for those folks who are allergic to cow’s milk, and there are some who are, they do not have all the healthful qualities of real milk. Recent publications from the American Academy of Pediatrics and from Canadian researchers found that dairy foods, including milk, supply essential nutrients for healthy growth in children and are an excellent source of calcium and vitamin D, necessary for strong bones.
Canadian researchers also found that children who drank only non-milk drinks were more than twice as likely to have deficient vitamin D levels as those who drank cow’s milk. They said low levels of vitamin D are linked to poor bone growth and a higher risk of type 1 diabetes.
Then, there are the butter substitutes that include the name butter in their product. They are also trying to ride on the coat tails of the premier spread butter.
Look at the words “natural and healthy” that are greatly over used and don’t mean much. Marketing experts, however, believe they help sell products. Companies making the drinks that they want to call milk are doing the same thing. They believe the word helps sell their drinks.
While the soy beverage is made from soybeans that are grown locally and is healthful drink, it should be sold under its own name.
In the Jan. 25 issue of “Hoard’s Dairyman,” a highly respected dairy magazine, there is an article about a company called Muufri that is trying to develop a drink that resembles milk. It is doing this through a complicated chemical process.
It has not been successful yet, but according to Hoard’s, given enough time and money, it will keep trying. It apparently has some money backing it. Checking its webpage, it is obvious that its objective is to put dairy farms and animal agriculture out of business.
With so many companies trying to take advantage of the good name of milk and dairy products, it’s time for the dairy industry to step up and take an aggressive approach to the problem. The industry, which includes dairy farmers, their cooperatives, processors and retailers, should get together to develop an active program that tells the story of real milk and dairy products.
So, when you go to the store and look in the dairy case, if you want real milk, then that is what you should look for, not the substitutes sold under milk’s name.
Parker is an independent agricultural writer.