Three legislative proposals to protect the terms meat, milk and dairy products are moving ahead in the Wisconsin legislative session and are getting high marks from farm groups.
During a hearing of the Wisconsin Senate’s Agriculture Committee, the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation (WFBF) submitted testimony in support of the three bills saying that the legislation “recognizes the value of the trust our farmers have spent years building in the marketplace” and that it allows Wisconsin to “join other states whose food producers also rely on the accepted terminology in the markets.”
A national research study found that plant-based products labeled with dairy terms such as “cheese” led about one-quarter of consumers to believe that the product contained milk. “We would like Wisconsin agriculture to be positioned to join with those who stand to protect the food markets we have worked so hard to establish,” said Debi Towns, Senior Director of Governmental Relations for WFBF.
“Over decades, Wisconsin farmers have established a reputation in the marketplace, both domestically and internationally, for their products using the accepted definitions of ‘milk, dairy and meat’.
