| What harm is done by saying plant-based milk? Everybody knows what we are talking about. It is crystal clear (yet white). Milk is still understood by default as cow milk. It will change when and if cow milk is not as widespread as today, and then the word milk will keep reflecting the reality, as today. The FDA, as in many parts of the world (in EU too, for instance), forbids calling such plant-based drinks milk because they are bribed and receive aggressive lobbying from the dairy industry [1]. How are we supposed to call them? Plant-based drinks that are white and look like milk? They are not always used as drinks since they can be used to cook, and are not the only plant based drinks. Yes, this makes it difficult to speak about them. Yes, this is possibly the point, along with avoiding that people think them as alternatives to cow milk. When you are telling people that "this is not milk", you are spreading this lobbying. What is your point? People saying milk for plant based drinks will not be convinced by this prescriptive approach anyway. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/02/10/the-s... |
"Oat milk", "almond milk" etc aren't really making any effort to imitate anything as far as I know, they are what they are.