Oy Vey It's A Food Newsletter - Vol 2, Issue 8
One small vanilla latte with nonfat lacteal secretion that’s practically free from colostrum, please!
Hi!
I have recently gotten some shoutouts from other Substack authors I really admire, which is pretty validating considering how often I feel like content creation is just me shouting into the void of the internet. All of these authors can be found on my Substack profile under “Reads” along with many other wonderful authors who, rightfully, have absolutely no idea I exist!
If you’re new here, feel free to reply to this post or comment below with a brief introduction or share some recent books/podcasts/articles/social media accounts/memes that you’ve enjoyed! If you’re not new here and you haven’t introduced yourself yet, feel free to do the same!
What I’ve Read
Commercial development of gene-edited food now legal in England - Gene-edited crops are now allowed in commercial use in England, it is still not allowed by Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish governments. The logic behind the decision is apparently to strengthen food production and jobs in that sector. Similar to the U.S., gene-edited organisms will continue to go through rigorous safety testing and monitoring by agricultural regulators. From my quick research, it doesn’t look like England has updated its labelling standards to call out gene editing, but that may change.
Speaking of controversy sparked by the support of biotechnology, FDA Commissioner Calls Biotech in Food a “Huge Interest” for the Agency, Sparking Anger from US Cattle Industry - FDA Commissioner Robert Califf referenced climate change and suggested that the use of biotechnology, including cell-cultured meat, in food could help mitigate such environmental issues. Guess who got very mad and publicly whined about the FDA overstepping its regulatory jurisdiction on the issue of cell-cultured meat? The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association of course!
Sen. Sanders calls to ‘break up’ large egg producers as Cal-Maine profits surge 718% - Sticker shock in the egg aisle? You may be even more shocked to learn that America’s largest egg producer, Cal-Maine, doubled it’s revenue and recorded a 718% increase in profits in Q1 thanks to those high consumer prices. Cal-Maine controls about 20% of the U.S. egg market. While the Egg Board maintains that their producers don’t set the prices, the farmer NGO Farm Action wrote to the FTC stating that the increased egg prices were the result of a “collusive scheme” led by Cal-Maine.
Why Right-Wingers Are So Afraid of Men Eating Vegetables - (CW that I wish I’d had: there is a horrible image of a calf being held down and branded about halfway) Are you ready to let, “the Colorado River run dry to own the libs…?” Turns out plenty of right wingers absolutely are! Manipulating our consumption choices into a partisan culture war is as American as, well, hamburgers. This was an insightful dive into the fear-mongering, conservative dogwhistles and other propaganda employed to convince the masses that their fragile masculinity is inherently tied to their food choices. Propaganda is the animal ag industry’s best friend; it’s just much easier to maintain your wealth and power, AKA the status quo, if you support fake facts over fake meat.
JBS to pay $25 mln in latest beef price-fixing settlement in US court - Price fixing accusations and the subsequent settling by shady global animal agribusiness conglomerates are not new. I’ve been reading more about the history of this sector, including the background of this price-fixing case, in the book Raw Deal by Chloe Sorvino. I’d like to note that the plaintiffs receiving this $52.5 million settlement are not angry tofu-loving, fake blood throwing vegans conspiring to take down the meat industry, the plaintiffs are grocers and others involved in beef purchasing. As I’ve repeated many times, I’m not a legal scholar or expert, but from what I know settling these cases makes it much easier for JBS and other corporations to maintain some level of deniability going forward (think, “we didn’t conspire to fix prices, we’re not actually at fault, we just chose to give up and settle the case to save on legal fees and now going forward all of you have to say we allegedly fixed prices because our guilt wasn’t proven in a court of law). To learn more, reference Cattle and Beef Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota, No. 0:22-md-03031-JRT-JFD in your research.
Lab Meat Skeptics, Please Just Get Out of the Way - This is an opinion piece, if that wasn’t obvious from the headline, written by an agriculture and climate columnist, journalist professor, and author. I appreciated that the author called out kitschy products like the Wooly Mammoth meatball, which aren’t helping solidify lab grown meat as a serious solution to the problems caused by industrialized animal agriculture.
Were the Impossible and Beyond burgers a fad, or is plant-based meat here to stay - This question seems to be in the news nonstop, and this was a decent overview of why we should be fairly optimistic about the staying power plant-based meat. It’s undeniable that the annual sales of plant-meats from 2017 to 2022 started to level off in 2020, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to a lack of demand or desire. As the author stated, the constant headlines surrounding this issue are namely because of the pressure big plant-based companies are facing from their investors. The consensus about the limitations of plant-based meat sales is usually the difference in cost from animal meats and the taste and texture not being identical. These are very valid points, but typically aren’t written about with the context of why animal meats are so much cheaper to produce compared to plant-based products. This article does mention the power of the meat industry but doesn’t quite reach the discussion of the political power of the animal meat industry or the government subsidies and detrimental industrialized production process that makes their products so much cheaper.
Q&Kay
Q: Hi you’ve been quiet on Instagram is everything okay? Not trying to be creepy, just wanted to check in and hopefully everything is fine!
A: Appreciate the check in, everything is fine! I actually got sick (nothing serious, just a little bug) for the first time in a couple years and have been reserving what little energy I’ve had for client work, taking care of Ginny, and taking care of myself instead of putting effort into social media. My personal laws of physics tend to align well with Newton’s first law: a Kayla in motion will stay in motion whereas a Kayla at rest likes to remain at rest. Once I take a break from posting I find it hard to get back into it. Also, I tend to think way too much about what feels “worthy” of posting after taking a break, even though I have had absolutely no issue with posting the most mundane shit in the past.
I am pretty sure this recent sickness is a result of pure exhaustion from a severe lack of sleep. I have had chronic insomnia as far back as I can remember. Ever since childhood I have gone through phases of not being able to fall asleep and I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually been able to take a nap as an adult. This recent bout of insomnia has gone on for the last 5-6 weeks. I have a lot of trouble falling asleep and am only averaging about 4 hours a night. While that’s not so much less than my typical lifetime average, especially while I was in school, it has really started to take a toll. No combination of new or tried-and-true sleeping aids has broken me out of this cycle and despite being sick and tired (literally), my ability to fall asleep has not yet improved. Maybe all I needed was to vent about this to a few hundred people? Guess I’ll find out tonight!
(Please note that unless you’re planning to majorly contribute to my sleeping pill fund, this is not me asking for sleep hygiene tips or trying to compete with you about how little sleep either of us get.)
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Kvetch Sesh
I really try not to get caught up in celebrity culture, but even I was super disappointed to see Aubrey Plaza shilling for the dairy industry in the form of a “got milk” ad. After her Wood Milk commercial went live, my DMs were full of messages asking I had seen it and, if so, what I thought. I’m not trying to be all self important, but I am pretty proud that my ~personal brand~ is strong enough that people associate an animal dairy PR stunt with my inevitable reaction of rolling my eyes as far back as humanly possible.
If you’re not on social media here is the TLDR version: Aubrey Plaza joked in a video that she is the co-founder of a new company that makes milk, from wood. About halfway through the video she acts like she’s learning mid sentence that wood milk isn’t actually real. The video concludes with Got Milk? flashing in the credits. If you do visit the drinkwoodmilk.com site you can purchase a Got Wood? t-shirt, the proceeds of which will go towards planting 10,000 trees in partnership with One Tree Planted.
Honestly, if the first half was was a Saturday Night Live sketch it would have been pretty funny. There are many different angles from which you could humorously parody plant milk or poke fun at oat milk stans without promoting animal dairy in the year 2023. The last bit of the commercial that starts with Plaza saying, “Here’s how Wood Milk is Born. Not born exactly. More like squished into a slime that’s legal to sell.” is where I think it really took a turn from could-have-been-funny to oh-no-Big-Dairy-got-Aubrey-Plaza. Are we really supposed to find the idea of plants soaked in water and blended until creamy (aka the, “slime that’s legal to sell”) to be more gross than “the lacteal secretion, practically free from colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows”(21CFR133.3)? According to the ad, yes because wood milk (read: plant milk) isn’t real. Or as Plaza put it, “only real milk is real”. With all the power, money, and influence of the dairy industry you’d think they could have come up with something better.
This debate over what is “real milk” is especially flimsy considering the FDA recently (finally) issued guidance that consumers aren’t confused by plant-based milk alternatives using the term “milk” in their labeling. Just like milk in the animal dairy aisle has qualifiers like 2%, skim, or whole milk, plant-based milk alternatives specify soy, oat, or almond milk. While I think this guidance is a major regulatory milestone, personally, I don’t care if plant milks are considered “real” or not by regulatory standards or by the dairy industry. Their “real” version causes me (and the majority of the global population) to experience very “real” gastrointestinal distress. I will choose the fake milk that’s not stolen from a baby cow every single time, if only for the selfish reason of preferring not to spend my entire day confined to a restroom. I guess the environmental and animal-welfare benefits are just positive, unintended consequences of that choice. Speaking of environmental benefits, I think the funniest part of this entire campaign is that the proceeds from the Got Wood? shirts are unironically going towards planting 10,000 trees. Animal agriculture is one of the leading causes of global deforestation and biodiversity loss and dairy production, specifically, requires massive amounts of land. Another instance where corporate players want you to pay more attention to their charitable actions than the root cause of the issue and asking why that charity is necessary in the first place.
Curious about what other people are saying about Wood Milk? If you want to get a decent idea of the resounding disappointment you’ll have to scroll through the comments on the Wood Milk account. Aubrey Plaza turned the comments off on her video fairly quickly. The supportive comments were mostly people enjoying how "easily triggered vegans” are and making fun of “snowflakes” who can’t take a joke.
Here are additional resources with longer form commentary:
Aubrey Plaza Is the Unfortunate New Face of the Milk Wars (Bon Appétit)
Got Wood Milk? Aubrey Plaza has a glass for you in new campaign (Delaware Online)
Aubrey Plaza Shills for Big Dairy With Vegan ‘Wood Milk’ Jab (VegNews)
(I swear I typed out the above essay prior to researching this section and used shill before reading this article)Aubrey Plaza’s Wood Milk Ad Under Fire For Being Too Pro-Dairy (Mashed)
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