Tell Congress Dairy is Nothing to Be Proud Of

Right now corrupt lawmakers in Washington are continuing to try and push through a senseless and absurd bill called the “Dairy Pride Act” to appease their Dairy Industry donors. 

During the last election cycle the Dairy Industry spent over $7 million on lobbying to influence our lawmakers and made over $1.5m in direct political contributions to 205 members of the United States House of Representatives and nearly $600,000 in contributions to 68 members of the United States Senate - which essentially means that half of the current United States Congress has been bought out by Big Dairy. 

Lawmakers provide a return on the dairy industry’s investment by propping it up with billions of dollars in taxpayer funded subsidies every year. 

Despite these massive handouts dairy’s popularity is diminishing as consumers are increasingly shifting towards plant-based alternatives for their health, for the good of the planet, and as a rejection of the horrific abuse of dairy cows. 

Instead of accepting this shift and the rights of citizens to make their own decisions as consumers, lawmakers are trying to defy the free market system of the United States by sabotaging plant-based alternatives through laws like the “Dairy Pride Act.”  

The Dairy Pride Act H.R. 1462/S.549 would prohibit “the sale of any food that uses the market name of a dairy product (such as milk, yogurt, or cream cheese) unless the food (1) is the milk of a hooved animal, (2) is derived from such milk, or (3) contains such milk as a primary ingredient.” 

These types of labeling laws are a flagrant attempt to suppress innovation in the food sector and state level attempts to pass similar bills have been ruled unconstitutional in the past. 

These bills are also an insult to everyday consumers who are clearly capable of differentiating between plant-based alternatives and products made from animal secretions. According to the Oxford English Dictionary “coconut milk” has been a noun in the English language since the late 1600’s, and now after three hundred years this household staple would suddenly need a new name if this absurd bill were to pass. 

Above all the bill is an insult to the innocent animals that are tortured and killed to make dairy products. Dairy is nothing to be proud of. Dairy cows suffer horrific physical and psychological abuse during their short lives as milk production tools before they are finally slaughtered when their milk supply slows down. 

In the US, 9.3 million cows are used to produce dairy and over 90 percent of them are kept in indoor operations. These innocent sensitive animals are repeatedly artificially inseminated to induce pregnancy and when their babies are born they are typically separated from their calves within an hour of giving birth. Desperate mothers cry out for their babies who are ripped away from them so that humans can use their milk. 

Every year around 450,000 baby cows are killed in the United States for veal. Their mothers are then milked until their supply diminishes and the process repeats. Dairy cows are typically slaughtered when they are under five years old even though their natural lifespan can be as long as 20 years. In the United States 60% of dairy cows are tethered by their necks while they are kept in indoor milking operations. 

These mother cows never see their babies and spend their entire lives indoors chained by their necks being drained of their bodily fluids for human greed until they are inevitably slaughtered. That is what the dairy industry is. That is what our lawmakers support and value above our rights as consumers. 

Please join Species Unite in opposing the Dairy Pride Act by telling congress that dairy is nothing to be proud of!

SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE CRUELTY:

Further Action:

Please also consider reaching out to your members of congress. You can use this link to find your state representatives. Simply type in your zip code and your state representatives will appear, under each person’s photo there will be a contact link. This will take you to their individual contact page where you can fill out an online form asking them to oppose the Dairy Pride Act (H.R. 1462/S.549).

You can use this note as a template or write your own. The more unique letters that our representatives receive the better.:

Dear Representative [INSERT NAME],

I am your constituent, and I am writing to urge you to oppose H.R. 1462/S.549, the Dairy Pride Act. This bill is an insult to consumers who can clearly differentiate between coconut milk and dairy milk as they have been doing so for hundreds of years without issues and it is a blatant violation of the United States Constitution and the free market principles on which our nation was founded. Dairy is also nothing to be proud of as the industry is highly abusive to the animals involved, terrible for the environment and unsustainable without hefty government subsidies that we as tax payers should not be expected to pay. Please do the right thing, respect consumer’s rights, promote food innovation, and say NO to H.R. 1462/S.549.

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]