In promising news for the plant-based food movement, a federal judge has struck down Arkansas’ so-called “Truth in Labeling” bill, which prohibits using the word “meat” on the package of any food not derived from animal flesh.
With support from the American Civil Liberties Union, The Good Food Institute, Animal Legal Defense Fund, and ACLU of Arkansas, the Tofurky Company sued the state of Arkansas over the bill’s constitutionality.
Passed this March, HB 1407 prevents companies that sell plant-based meat products from using “meat” and other meat-related terminology on their packaging, even if the product is clearly described as vegan or vegetarian. This includes words such as “sausage” and “burger.”
Companies that fail to comply face up to $1,000 in fines for each term’s usage, forcing them to either change their labels and include confusing and vague descriptors, pay the fines indefinitely, or stop selling in the state entirely.
Attacks on plant-based food labels are nothing new. In 2014, Unilever sued a vegan mayonnaise company for the “misleading” use of the word “mayo” because the product did not contain eggs. After significant backlash, they dropped the lawsuit two months later.
Supporters of the Arkansas law say it will prevent companies from falsely advertising to consumers and no longer allow for misleading labels. In reality, the law’s primary purpose seems to be the protection of the meat and dairy industries. It limits plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy, stunts marketplace competition, and hinders free speech.
Unfortunately, the judge’s recent ruling is not a permanent fix. It only allows Tofurky to continue selling its products without being penalized until the lawsuit is resolved. Other companies must still adhere to this new and limiting law, but there is reason to be optimistic.
“The State appears to believe that the simple use of the word ‘burger,’ ‘ham,’ or ‘sausage’ leaves the typical consumer confused, but such a position requires the assumption that a reasonable consumer will disregard all other words found on the label,” wrote Judge Kristine Baker, who presided over the case. She concluded, “As a result, Tofurky is likely to prevail on its arguments that its labeling is neither unlawful nor inherently misleading and that Tofurky’s commercial speech warrants First Amendment protection.”
“We are pleased that the court blocked this unconstitutional law from being enforced while our underlying lawsuit proceeds, so that consumers can continue to have access to familiar plant-based products in Arkansas for the foreseeable future,” said Tofurkey’s CEO Jamie Athos. He continued, “Plant-based foods are increasingly popular with savvy consumers who understand the health and environmental consequences of their actions and it brings us no small joy that these individuals will be able to set their everyday and holiday tables with the products of their choice. While they do, we will fight the law in court.”
The kernal of a nut is called the “meat” of the nut…are the meatheads going to ban that too?
So sick and tired of the meat industry, the dairy industry and their paid lackeys in government and the medical industry.
IF money is speech as the idiots in the supreme court ruled it is, then yu can call anything whatever you want and the only criteria for freedom is monetary profit. I could package sewage and call it McDonmald’s…oh weiat they do that already.
Money is speech, corporations are people and actual people are coupons…disposable commodities. Where money is king, everyone is a slave.
Good for this judge, this law just goes to show how lawmakers are in the pockets of corporations. Just like the law to make it illegal to whistleblow on animal abusers in the meat production industry, a law to protect the criminals from the public’s eye. Disgusting and it definitely shows how criminals protect criminals.
And then there’s milk. The dairy industry wants plant-based milks (almond milk, oat milk, rice milk, soy milk) to stop using the word “milk” on their labeling.
The dairy and meat industries have their own agendas…but apart from this, I do not understand the need to call plant-based products the same as animal-based products. If vegans and vegetarians (I am vegetarian) are well aware of what they want and buy, where is the need to make these products look and sound like animal products? It is actually a turn off for me…I don’t buy any plant-based product called “sausage” or “burger”. Why would I? I really don’t get it. Could someone explain their addiction to these words?
I think the vegan manufacturers should find other names for their inedible products!
Calling them by meat names is misleading and wrong! Call it salty pink stuff instead
of ham like! People who eat their product know what they are getting no matter what
it’s called.
The western diet is mostly meat-based…which is probably why vegans can’t let go of the idea of eating something that sounds like and vaguely looks like meat (at least in shape). I believe it would be wiser to turn to other cultures that have centuries of experience in eating a semi-vegetarian diet, and learned to process certain grains like corn (in Mexico) or soya (Japan and China), to make them more digestible and nutritious, and never tried to them look like pork chops. “Tofurkey” is about as absurd as non alcoholic beer…if you are going to change your diet, why pretend that you are not?
JHow about NCAM+ “Non-cancer causing alternative to meat”.
Well done.Christmas Blessings.😻
People understand the differences. We are not stupid!! We get it. 🍇🍈🍉🍊🍋🍌🍍🍎🍏🍐🍑🍒🍓🍅🥥🥝🥑🍆🥔🥕🌽🌶🥒🥦🍄🥜🌰🍞🥐🥖🥨
People will not be confused by the labelling. We are not stupid!! We get the differences. 🍇🍈🍉🍊🍋🍌🍍🍎🍏🍐🍑🍒🍓🍅🥥🥝🥑🍆🥔🥕🌽🌶🥒🥦🍄🥜🌰🍞🥐🥖🥨
When I go to the grocery store, I go directly to the vegan-vegetarian section where I can find all I want. Mayonnaise, sausage, burger are just words and people are not stupid, they look at the labels and see for themselves that there is no eggs, milk or meat. In some US states the meat and dairy industry have tried to introduce the ag-gag law and failed. In some way this is a
type of ag-gag, a type of scare,frustration and anger tactic to save and preserve their animal torture and keep the planet dirty.
If you know what you’re getting, why do you want it to say burger or ham? It’s vegetable granules
flavored with chemicals to make it look or taste like pork or beef! Call it that! Anyone who has
eaten the stuff, and I have, knows it’s not burger or ham! My parents became vegitarian, and we
ate Choplets, Wham, Vegeburger, chicket! It tasted like dry flavorless, cardboard, just like the stuff
now. tofurky is harder tto chew than shoe leather!
“Why do you want it to say burger or ham?”
This is a question most vegans cannot answer. It would be like a sober individual calling water “vodka”. It seems that there is a lingering addiction to animal products there somewhere. Some vegan products are so absurd as to have zero nutritional value, like fake cheese…it vaguely looks like cheese, and is meant to satisfy a craving for cheese. Why? I would rather have miso soup or tempeh, at least it is not a “pretend food”, it is real and nutritious.
I am not sure I agree…why do so many vegans and vegetarians insist on keeping the animal products terminology, such as “sausage”, “burger”, etc? It makes no sense to me. It would be like a reformed alcoholic insisting on labelling grape juice “wine”. What is the point? Why not getting away from this vocabulary altogether? In Asia, the word tofu is in no way related to meat, seitan does not mean “stew”, tempeh isn’t called “soy cheese”, natto doesn’t translate into “burger”.
If you are going to get away from animal products, why keep the jargon? It;’s totally absurd!
I so agree with you! They use the meat terms to suck in people who aren’t paying attention
They put it by meat in some stores!
I am actually vegetarian, but I do not eat any of these products because most of them are indeed unhealthy, full of chemicals etc…I eat actual tofu, seitan, miso, seaweeds, a lot of sprouts, more of an organic Japanese/Chinese diet (without animal products), which tastes a lot better and is much healthier. What I do not understand is the addiction vegetarians/vegans have in the west to the words sausage, roast, burger, etc…I don’t think the aim is to confuse meat-eaters, I believe vegetarians/vegans are still addicted to the idea of meat and can’t let go of the wording.
All products should be labeled honestly..
As a vegetarian I want to know what I am buying.
There us a reason there is now a Federal law against animal abuse. This low life is why.
Whereas I may have no problem with “vegan sausage, etc”; I do have a preference for the truth. To wit, if you buy an item that is “meat” based, the accurate description of the same should be maintained. However, if an item is not meat-based (e.g., vegan/plant-based) then it should be labeled clearly as such.
After all, the new technology coming up to speed is “meat-cell” based (lookup Future-meat.com for details). What should this be called to maintain accuracy? They can’t all be the same name, correct?