Analysis: Louisiana lawmakers push food label restrictions
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana's lawmakers are on a labeling binge this year, pushing ahead with food classification restrictions on milk, rice, meat, sugar, shrimp, and crawfish as they try to assist the state's agricultural industries.
The protectionist measures are provoking ridicule on social media, threats of litigation and objections from people who say they don't need the state telling them that almond milk isn't real milk.
But legislators say they're trying to make sure consumers know what they're buying, eating, and drinking, and they say they're trying to help bolster farmers and fishermen who are struggling.
Two of the so-called "truth in labeling" proposals — overwhelmingly backed by the Senate and awaiting debate in the House — come from Senate Agriculture Chairman Francis Thompson, a Democrat from rural Richland Parish.
One of the measures adds protections for meat, seafood, rice and sugar producers, making it unlawful for food manufacturers to market products such as "cauliflower rice" if there's no rice in it or "veggie meat patties" if they don't contain meat. Thompson's proposal is similar to legislation signed in Arkansas.
His second bill seeks to prohibit a beverage from being labeled as milk unless the product comes from a cow, goat or "other hooved mammals." In other words, the legislation targets soy milk, almond milk, and other synthetic milk alternatives.
"There's absolutely no issue with the quality of any of these other products," Thompson said during Senate debate of the milk labeling proposal. "I believe they're healthy beverages and critical to many consumers with allergies or food intolerance. But are they milk? No, they are not milk."
Sen. Dan Claitor, a Baton Rouge Republican, was one of two senators to oppose the milk...