Posted on 04/12/2018 1:42:32 PM PDT by Red Badger
If we had an actual, physical folder of evidence that the food labeling system in the United States is broken, it'd be full to bursting. And we'd be adding "skim milk????" to the list right about now.
Maryland dairy farmers Randy and Karen Sowers are, with the help of the Institute for Justice (a non-profit libertarian-leaning law firm), suing the Food and Drug Administration for essentially doubling down on a very silly law.
The gist: South Mountain Creamery, the dairy producer owned by the Sowerses, want to sell milk without the addition of any synthetic chemicals. To do this, they would be forced to label their milk as imitation milk, which they view as both incorrect and unfair.
At the center of this debate is skim milk, which is milk from which all but trace amounts of milkfat have been removed. Skim milk is usually created by spinning milk in a centrifuge, which separates the milkfat from the liquid. But that milkfat also contains some valuable vitamins, most importantly vitamins A and D, and removing so much of it means that skim milk naturally contains very small amounts of those vitamins. This is not true of, say, one and two percent milkthose milks still contain some of that valuable milkfat.
The FDAs goal with these regulations is to ensure that skim milk has the same nutrients as its fuller-fat counterparts. To encourage that, the organization mandates that any milk labeled skim milk must have those vitamins added back.
Where this gets weird is that South Mountain Creamery, which wishes to sell milk that has had its fat skimmed out but hasnt had those vitamins added back inan objectively less messed-with product, albeit less healthful onecannot label its milk as skim milk. Instead, to convey that it does not have the same nutritional profile as other milks, the FDA requires that it have some additional label, something like imitation skim milk product.
The FDA is creating confusion where there was none whatsoever. People know what skim milk means, but they have no idea what imitation milk product means. Pure, all-natural skim milk is not an imitation of anything, said Justin Pearson, a lawyer with the Institute of Justice, in a press release. The Sowers family and the Institute of Justice are suing the FDA on free speech grounds, stating that the government attempting to change the definitions of common words and restrict their use.
Whats interesting here is that the FDAs commitment to promoting ostensibly more nutritious milk is totally reasonable. But in that effort, should the FDA be allowed to force rigid, maybe even nonsensical definitions on farmers? And is there even a way to ensure that the consumer understands that most skim milk has a certain nutritional makeup, while milk like South Mountain Creamerys may not?
Its worth noting that this is not the first time this particular argument has been brought to court. The Institute for Justice was behind another, very similar lawsuit, one that was conducted in Florida back in 2016. That suit was successful, with the judge ruling that the government could not be permitted to force a dairy to lieand that saying this type of no-nutrient-added skim milk is imitation is a lie.
He won’t have standing. As a manufacture of imitation products, he is no longer a dairy farmer.
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Thanks for posting the picture. I know an imitation cow standing out in a field when I see one. ;-)
I won’t buy it raw but I will buy 3.5% pasteurized
“SKIMMED Milk” - My thought exactly. Glad I scrolled :)
“I wont buy it raw but I will buy 3.5% pasteurized”
We used to live near a dairy farm in Switzerland that sold pasteurized milk, and we had the option to buy it prior to homogenization. The cream would rise to the top and we could skim it off for our own “skim milk” while retaining the cream to add to other milk which made the best homemade ice cream ever.
Skim milk, eh? Well...
http://butterbeliever.com/fat-free-dairy-skim-milk-secrets/
Milk bkmk
Randy and Karen will win this one. Stupid government!
We are able to get raw organic milk. Its allowed within certain legal parameters in our state and Im so grateful.
“Whats interesting here is that the FDAs commitment to promoting ostensibly more nutritious milk is totally reasonable.”
Thank God, the FDA is here to protect us. We idiots, who don’t work for the government, cannot select the most nutritious milk for our needs.
“”Pure, all-natural skim milk is not an imitation of anything,””
Goes without saying, doesn’t it? Will the government NEVER run out of fools to write regulations? Where DO these people come from?
“”I don’t drink a lot of milk, but I don’t understand how people drink the skim stuff. But I wouldn’t outlaw it. “”
It doesn’t taste any different and I was raised on raw milk. THAT took some getting used to when it wasn’t available any longer. We drink a lot of milk and no one complains...Nothing like a glass of ice cold milk...even if you don’t add the fresh baked chocolate chip cookies!! Or heck - even Oreos...
*** “Thank God, the FDA is here to protect us. We idiots, who dont work for the government, cannot select the most nutritious milk for our needs” ***
Thank God they cannot pick the Caliber of my Firearms nor the size / capacity of my Magazine
TEXAS!
Public skoolze and commie infested universities..................
that would be california LOL
Nanny State PING!
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
Orwell wrote about this sort of thing.
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