Milk: What’s In A Name?

Back in ye olden times, the Bard asked, “What’s in a name?”

Well, he’d probably be pretty confused if someone asked him if he’d like some almond milk to drink. “To thine own self be true, almonds! Thou ain’t milk!”

An amazing bill is still working its way through Congress called The Dairy Pride Act. It makes little sense on why we need this bill because what it does should be obvious. It basically says that only products from cows should be called milk. Wow, right? The reason this is needed is because many see nut juices on the shelf labeled as “milk” and believe they are nutritionally equal. They’re not, by the way.

But, what’s in a name? Milk, in the traditonal sense, is supposed to come from lactating cows. While I can’t say I’ve done extensive tests on nuts, I have yet to see the neccesary parts on them that would allow for milking. So how could they possibly be considered as anything other than juice??

I began to wonder what else dairy farmers could do to counter these false advertising claims? The truth is the simplest answer. We could make the name true.

What if we renamed our cows? Get rid of Holstein, Jersey, etc; and named them after……. nuts!

What kind of cows do you have?”

“We’ve got cashew cows. My neighbor has some of the almond one’s.”

Lo and behold, we could now sell real, honest to goodness, nut milk.

In the meantime, your best option for milk is what comes from a cow. Accept no imitations, facsimiles, or frauds. What’s in a name when your name is milk? The answer should always be real milk.