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from the slow-roasting-grills-of-justice dept.
A federal judge on Tuesday roasted Arkansas' law banning makers of meatless meat products from using words such as "burger," "sausage," "roast," and "meat" in their labeling.
[...] Judge Kristine Baker, of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, granted a preliminary injunction that prevents the state from enforcing the law while the legal case is ongoing. In her order, Judge Baker made clear that the law appears to violate the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment—as Tofurky argued. She determined that the state will likely lose the case.
[...] "The State argues that Tofurky's labels for its plant-based products are inherently misleading because they use the names and descriptors of traditional meat items but do not actually include the product they invoke, including terms like 'chorizo,' 'hot dogs,' 'sausage,' and 'ham roast,'" Judge Baker noted. Such misleading or false labels would not be protected commercial speech under the First Amendment, the state claimed.But Judge Baker essentially called that argument bologna.
[...] She went on to cite a ruling in a similar case that determined that "Under Plaintiffs' logic, a reasonable consumer might also believe that veggie bacon contains pork, that flourless chocolate cake contains flour, or that e-books are made out of paper.""That assumption is unwarranted," she went on. "The labels in the record evidence include ample terminology to indicate the vegan or vegetarian nature of the products."
[...] Meat and dairy industry groups have been increasingly working to try to limit the use of terms like "milk" and "meat" in other states and contexts as meatless and diary-free products continue to grow in popularity. Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Dakota have similar anti-veggie-meat labeling laws. In Wisconsin, lawmakers have considered banning non-dairy products from using the word "milk," such as beverages labeled almond milk.The latter issue led former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb to quip last year that "You know, an almond doesn't lactate." He said that the Food and Drug Administration is working on a guidance for the use of the term.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/12/judge-serves-up-sizzling-rebuke-of-arkansas-anti-veggie-meat-labeling-law/
Previous Stories:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/12/04/1425220
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/07/07/1443201
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/02/26/2315236
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @05:14PM (8 children)
> ... describing something as "beer" when there is no alcohol in it
On the grape side of things, there is some very tasty sparkling grape juice, which sort-of passes for a fizzy wine like Champagne or Prosecco.
Perhaps you would prefer "sparkling malt beverage" or "designated driver drink"??
Practically speaking, were you ever fooled by marketing into drinking non alcoholic "beer"? Did you get a buzz anyway(grin)??
(Score: 3, Funny) by barbara hudson on Saturday December 14 2019, @05:35PM (6 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Arik on Saturday December 14 2019, @05:58PM (3 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by legont on Saturday December 14 2019, @09:12PM (2 children)
Let me emphasize it - tens of thousands of microbreweries. The US is currently the capital of beer. Nowhere in the world beer is as good and as diverse.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by dry on Sunday December 15 2019, @04:03AM (1 child)
Except Canada and I assume parts of Europe. America has caught up though, if there is one thing America is good at, it is taking a good idea and running with it.
(Score: 2) by legont on Sunday December 15 2019, @04:12PM
I go to Europe often. Yes, it traditionally has good beer, but the market over there did not change that much over the last few decades, while the US one (and yes, Canada's) just exploded.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @06:13PM
Once again, we can blame it on regulation(?)
A friend used to work for a large regional brewery (one of the major brands), in the 1980s. He claimed that the difference between US and Canadian beer (which was generally better in that decade) was due to taxation policy. The US taxed beer that was bottled/canned and sold, Canada taxed beer that was brewed (whether sold or flushed as bad).
Given the tolerances in the beer making process at that time, the US brewed marginal beer (in mass quantity) and only sold the stuff that passed whenever quality testing they did. And only paid tax on the beer actually sold, not on all the really bad stuff that was thrown out.
Meanwhile Canadian breweries had to err on the conservative side of the tolerance band because they were getting taxed on everything they brewed, so they better be able to sell it all.
Not sure if this still applies now, maybe someone has more recent information?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday December 14 2019, @07:16PM
Craft beer sales continue growth, now amount to 24% of total $114-billion U.S. beer market [usatoday.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 15 2019, @02:09AM
Alcohol free beer...aka...piss.