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Comment by anonymoushn | Hacker News Reader

Growing almonds in California is pretty unethical. Have you tried oat milk?

Agreed on that as a CA resident! I haven't tried oat milk but I see it around and it's good to have new alternatives. There's also soy milk and others like flaxseed milk.

My comment was just about the article's characterization of almond milk drinkers. I wonder who would benefit from demonizing one of the few alternatives to cow's milk?

Oat milk is too sweet.

Oat milk? Shouldn't that be oat juice?

Oats aren't animals that produce milk for their offspring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL1SDmTP6v8

it's a marketing thing... you wouldn't understand.

In most of Europe, you cannot call plant-based drinks milk, as that's a misleading name, as pointed out... they have to call it what it is, e.g. "almond drink", "soy drink" etc..

Are you sure? I'm fairly sure that was just a US FDA thing – “milk” has been used to describe sap and juices in Europe for many, many years – iirc that's where the word “lettuce” comes from.

"the word “milk” is a protected denomination reserved only for mammary secretions. (This stipulation is found in the EU’s Single CMO Regulation)" - http://www.ensa-eu.org/eu-legislation/food-labeling/

I've just bought some wheat, rice and almond milk in Prague, CZ. The thing is that this rule applies only if it's not known that it is a metaphor - e.g. there is a "rum drink" that is not a rum and it used to be called "tuzemsky rum" (local rum), now it's "tuzemak" (abbreviation of the first word); similar situations was with different kinds of fruit jams. At the same time, almond milk... well, everyone knows almond tree is not a cow.

Italians call almond milk latte di mandorle. Nobody confuses it with milk to my knowledge

Of course I understand the propensity for corporations to lie about their products. But words are supposed to mean things. You shouldn't be able to just make shit mean whatever you want it to mean.

The propensity to lie in marketing is why there are rules against such behaviour in many jurisdictions. For example, in the US the term "ice cream" is reserved for frozen dairy desserts with a minimum fat content of 10%. Any less and you can't use the word "ice cream".

Similarly, in the EU one would have to call the abomination you call "oat milk", oat drink or something similar, since "milk" is a protected denomination reserved only for mammary secretions.

> in the EU one would have to call the abomination you call "oat milk", oat drink or something similar, since "milk" is a protected denomination reserved only for mammary secretions.

I've bought almond milk and oat milk in the the UK, which is still the EU for a couple of weeks.

> words are supposed to mean things

Indeed.

s/the abomination/what/

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