Interior, Environment, Financial Services, and General Government Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, a few years ago, a company in California called Hampton Creek, now known as JUST, Inc., started selling vegan-- that is to say, eggless--mayonnaise. Just Mayo was one of hundreds of increasingly popular alternative foods developed in recent decades, marketed to vegetarians, vegans, and people with food allergies or other health concerns.

Understandably, as soon as Just Mayo started to win confidence, it started to attract the attention of top executives in the egg industry. Unfortunately, their intent was not to improve quality or reduce prices. It was, instead, to enlist the government in a pattern that would chill competition.

Under a 1938 Federal law, the Food and Drug Administration has the power to set so-called ``standards of identity.'' Those are rules defining what does and does not qualify as a particular food product. Under these regulations, anything calling its ``mayonnaise'' has to have eggs in it. Just Mayo was being accused of being illegally labeled. It is not just mayonnaise.

Just the other week, the FDA announced a proposed rule that would ban the use of the term ``milk'' for nondairy products. The FDA says milk is ``lacteal secretion . . . obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows,'' and nothing else. The proposed rule change would wipe out almond milk, soy milk, and coconut milk off of our grocery store shelves.

Whatever their original value, these labeling requirements are outdated and they are unnecessary. Consumers are not deceived by these labels. No one buys almond milk under the false illusion that it came from a cow. They buy almond milk because it didn't come from a cow.

The amendment I am offering would protect consumers from these ``standards of identity'' requirements, and they would protect them from this kind of abuse. Specifically, the amendment would prohibit funds from being used to enforce these rules against products simply because of their use of a common compound name--such as where a word or phrase identifies an alternative plant or animal source.

In other words, it would protect products like ``almond milk,'' ``goat cheese,'' and ``gluten-free bread'' from accusations of being illegally labeled. It belongs to consumers, not big agricultural companies. The role of government in the market is to protect competition, not any one competitor. The Federal Government has more important things to worry about than the fake scourge of almond milk.

I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this amendment.

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