FDA says plant-based drinks CAN be called milk

Yeah, he joins us in studio and it is a win for oat milk today. Which is so yummy. Well, I'm not with you on that part. I know it spikes your sugar. I find it a little chalky to be honest. My wife's a big fan of almond milk, for example. Doesn't work.

And she says, why don't you put it in your coffee? What are you kidding me? Yeah. Anyway, yeah, you're right. This is a big day and this is a story that's been playing out kind of in the wings of the consumer movement for a few years now. And that is can almond milk or oat milk or soy milk be marketed as milk? Well, the dairy industry has been saying no. If it doesn't come from a cow, it's not milk. And this has been something that's been going back and forth. Well, today finally, the Food and Drug Administration comes out with a draft ruling and it says, yeah, it's not exactly milk, but you can still call it milk.

And the reason for this, according to the FDA, is that first of all, consumers are smart enough to figure out whether something comes from an almond or from a cow. Second, this has become a part of the consumer vocabulary. And this is sort of a win for common sense here. For years, people have been calling these products soy milk or almond milk. So to change it now to almond flavored beverage, not quite the same thing. The FDA says, look, consumers are on top of this. Don't worry about it.

Yes, you can keep calling it milk. Dairy industry not happy about this. And moreover, this is a reversal from the Trump Administration. At that time, the FDA ruled that an almond does not lactate. Therefore, it is not milk. And that's true at the same time. However, yeah, this is something that we all do as consumers.

So it seems to make sense to keep things as they are. But here's the thing. Starbucks, for example, charges 80 cents more if you get almond milk in your drink. So if it's milk now, can we bring that price down? Well, it's milking the almonds is so expensive because of, you know, I mean, then you had to chase them down. It's the whole thing. I just like the fact that this is one of those rare examples where we have common sense prevailing because obviously the dairy industry is correct. It's not milk per se.

On the other hand, you know, it's a milk substitute. It's a plant-based beverage, but we'll call it milk at least for now. Yeah, it does remind me of some things that can't be called juice because there's no juice in it. It's a whatever fruit beverage. Right, exactly. Google, kind of a fall from grace where they were bragging about all the things that they have in the office, but now employees have to share. Well, and this is like the return to work nightmare that's out there as we're all being pushed back into the office place.

What do you know? Yeah, exactly. Look at YouTube. What we're talking about here is Google Cloud, which is a division of Google that does their cloud computing, has laid down the law and sent a memo to cloud workers saying, you're going to have to share desks from now on. We're talking about workers in San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Seattle, New York, and elsewhere. Google is saying what they want to do is close down some of that office space and devote the money instead to new technology, which is a Google thing to do. But look at what this does to the workers. Google is instructing the workers, you need to arrange your schedules so that you come in on different days, so that each of you has a shot at the desk.

And if you've got to come in on the same day, one of you is going to have to use a drop-in desk and not your own desk, but somehow we'll make this work. And I look at that and I think, okay, from a corporate money-staving point of view, yeah, that makes sense. On the other hand, your desk is your little piece of corporate real estate and you dress it up. Mine has cat pictures all over it, for example. And so when you take that away or when you force people to share, you're taking away a certain sense of self-expression and identity, and it's basically a good way to turn workers into hired help. Well, you know what they say. Sharing is caring.

Now, when it comes to desks. As long as there's hand sanitizer there, I'm fine with it. Yeah, but you want to look up at all my family photos and things if you guys are working, you want to look up at yours. Oh, I'm so intently looking at my work. That's what I wouldn't notice. Well, I'm pretty sure people are begging for pictures of your cat. All right, well, there's that, too.

That's the upside of sharing a desk with me. I just find this like, are you kidding me? Yeah, good to see you, Laz. Thanks. Thank you.

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