Almond milk doesn’t come from cows. Idaho’s senators think you’re too dumb to know that | Opinion

Lest you think Congress isn’t getting any work done these days, consider the Defending Against Imitations and Replacements of Yogurt, milk, and cheese to Promote Regular Intake of Dairy Everyday Act, otherwise known as the DAIRY PRIDE Act.

(It must have taken a whole team of staff members just to come up with that acronym, though we think it would have been even better to keep milk and cheese in the acronym, so that it’s the DAIRY McPRIDE Act, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. But we digress.)

And lest you think there’s no such thing as bipartisanship in Washington, the Dairy Pride Act is sponsored by Idaho’s own Republican Sen. Jim Risch and Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, which makes sense, since Idaho and Wisconsin are two of the top dairy producing states in the country.

Baldwin introduced the bill in 2017, and it has languished since being revived this week.

Co-sponsors include Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, along with Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Peter Welch, D-Vermont.

So what’s behind this apparent need for an act of Congress?

Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed guidance that would allow nut, oat, soy and other nondairy products to use the name “milk.”

The Dairy Pride Act would require nondairy products made from nuts, seeds, plants and algae to no longer be labeled with dairy terms such as milk, yogurt or cheese.

“For too long, plant-based products with completely different nutritional values have wrongly masqueraded as dairy,” Risch said in a press release.

First of all, you might rightly ask yourself, “Don’t they have more important things to do?”

Such as reform immigration, balance the budget, extend the debt ceiling so the U.S. government can pay its bills, help Ukraine fight the Russian invasion, create a fair tax system, enact regulation reform, address infrastructure needs, stuff like that.

Worrying about a label on a carton of almond milk is hardly a priority for most Americans.

Second, the legislation assumes that you’re incredibly dumb, that you don’t know there’s a difference between the origin of dairy milk and almond milk. Americans are smart enough to know that almond milk doesn’t come from cows.

“This dishonest branding is misleading to consumers and a disservice to the dairy farmers who have committed their lives to making milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and more nutritious products Idahoans enjoy every day,” Risch said in his release.

The Dairy Pride Act begins with the characterization that you, the consumer, are not very bright, easily duped into believing that soy milk is the same as dairy milk. To the contrary, consumers are making informed decisions based on nutrition considerations, environmental concerns, allergies and lactose intolerance.

Finally, the Dairy Pride Act calls for more regulation from a federal bureaucracy, demanding increased “enforcement obligations” of the FDA.

If Congress wants to increase regulations on something, perhaps it should start with rail safety rules that could have prevented last month’s disastrous train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

There are plenty of better things our senators from Idaho could be working on.

An act to “protect” consumers from a milk label isn’t one of them.