I'm not very happy about this, so I went to the NMPF to find out more. Their website has a form letter to send to the Commissioner of the FDA, so I thought I'd send her my own letter. here's what I wrote:

margaret.hamburg@fda.hhs.gov
Dear Commissioner Hamburg,

I recently read about the NMPF lobby trying to prevent alternatives to dairy products from being clearly labeled. I saw that they are mounting a campaign focused on you, so I thought I'd give you a counterpoint to consider.

The NMPF seems to be insisting that there is only one definition for terms like “milk” and “cream.” Of course, that’s not the case. Coconuts are perhaps the most obvious example of a seed plant that produces a typically white fluid called milk, but there are many others as well. Will they be going after medicinal and cosmetic topical creams, next?

If anything, the products that the NMPF are going after are the ones that are actually labeled clearly. Dairy milk does not clearly identify itself as such, and should be required to do so. How else is one to know whether a beverage is secreted from a cow, goat, llama, pig, or other mammal? The NMPF is correct that there is a problem with milk labeling, but they are missing the point that they are the source of that problem.

Sincerely,

This is really good information. I just wish more people had the desire or nerve to educate themselves about the consequences of their actions and choices. Being vegetarian for 4 years and mostly vegan for 6 months (almost all the way there), I don't think that taking the word "milk" off of non-dairy products will harm sales in the least or help the Dairy Industry. We, for example, choose non-dairy because we know that it does not contain dairy, regardless of whether the label says "milk" or not. Before we stopped drinking dairy, I was never fooled by the word milk on any product because in my mind, life, upbringing etc...milk can mean many things. The word milk was also always accompanied by the appropriate explanation of the type of milk. We drink Soy, Almond, Rice, Hemp MILK precisely because we don't want lacteal secrection dairy MILK. The Dairy Industry is desperately trying to regain lost (educated) consumers under the false assumption that we have all been duped into buying non-dairy, thinking that it is dairy because of that one little word. They are also operating on a disconnected basis with the current and changing consumer desires and awareness, and they are in denial. Call it what you will, I'm buying non-dairy!

Well the dairy farmers are right here, it is not fair for them to use certain terminology if they are not licensed to produce those items!!