A high up in the agency agreed with her critique. Janet Woodcock, FDA's principal deputy commissioner, said that the agency has too many programs and not enough resources. The food division is under-resourced.
One of the main lobbying goals of the FDA is to help the dairy industry. Booker said that for too long the FDA has failed to take action to address the nutrition crisis we are facing in our country. The FDA seems poised to take action solely for the purpose of protecting market share for conventional milk, in a blatant example of regulatory capture after years of dairy industry pressure. I hope that the Office of Management and Budget will return the proposed guidance to the FDA for reconsidering, as I am concerned by the FDA's misguided priorities. The budget office wouldn't say when it would make a decision on the FDA's proposal.
Booke joined forces with Senator Mike Lee of Utah, Representative Julia Brownley of California, and Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina to make a similar plea that the OMB squash any plan to crack down on the labeling of plant-based milks. They pointed to a federal court decision that rejected the dairy industry's claim that consumers can't assess the nutrition of non- dairy products.
Califf's decision to make the topic a priority right now is as puzzling as Big Dairy's obsession with "milk" being a priority. In 1945, Americans drank an average of 2.3 cups of dairy milk a day. The peak preceded a long and steady downward slope. We consume less than one cup of coffee a day, and less than half of it in cereals.
After decades as a fringe food found mainly in health food stores, dairy-free alternatives began to soar in popularity during the 21st century, and now account for 15% of all dollar sales of retail milk. The recent decline of milk can't be blamed on the rise of alternatives. The increase in sales of plant-based options is one-fifth the size of the decrease in Americans' purchases of cow's milk. Sales of plant-based milk alternatives are contributing to the decline in cow's milk sales according to the report.
There isn't any evidence that America's turn away from milk as a beverage has hurt its nutrition. Even as per capita milk consumption dwindled, the USDA found that calcium intake increased for all age groups. As we have turned away from cow milk, we haven't seen signs of a deficiency in our diet.
The battle over what to call the stuff we rely on to enhance coffee and cereals looks a lot like a fight in a coffee shop. There are more burning issues that the FDA has to deal with. The baby formula crisis is something like that. The dairy industry has the problem of chronic over production.
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