Consumers can help bolster the declining Virginia dairy industry by purchasing local milk and milk products.
“Buy cow milk, not nut juices,” advised Sarah Weaver Sharpe, a Virginia Cooperative Extension agent in Greene County. Local foods are one of Sharpe’s specialties, and she tries to educate consumers on the importance of understanding the mislabeling of milk. “If people knew the nutritional value of cow milk versus nut milk—one ingredient versus a dozen or more—they would buy cow milk.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking public comments on regulations governing how dairy and non-dairy products, like almond “milk” are labeled. The FDA is studying the wide variety of plant-based foods that are being positioned in the marketplace as substitutes for standardized dairy products.
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