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Senate Committee Backs Plant-Based Milk Choice in Historic Nutrition Policy Shift
Legislative breakthrough would end the federal milk monopoly in schools — promoting sensible nutrition and stopping blatant disregard for cows who labor only to see their milk tossed in trash
By Wayne Pacelle
We’re not slowing down when it comes to game-changing victories for animals.
You know of our work to pass the FDA Modernization Act 2.0. It set the stage for reform and enabled the FDA commissioner and National Institutes of Health director to make a pair of extraordinary announcements in April to start the nation down the path of phasing out testing on dogs, primates, and millions of other animals. This was the work of our Modernize Testing campaign.
And I told you in a series of announcements in May that we had secured agreements from Adidas, ASICS, and Mizuno to stop sourcing kangaroo skins for shoes — meaning that we’ve run the table with the top eight global athletic shoe brands, including prior wins with Nike, Puma, and New Balance. This was the work of our Kangaroos Are Not Shoes campaign.
Today, just into the start of June, I have a major update on our Dunking the Milk Mandate campaign.
In a long-overdue course correction to one of the most archaic and unfair nutrition mandates in federal law, the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee advanced a bipartisan compromise bill that eliminates the eight-decade-old cows’ milk monopoly in the National School Lunch Program. It finally gives schools the choice to serve plant-based milk and ensures millions of lactose-intolerant kids can receive a beverage that actually nourishes rather than harms them.
Many people said this breakthrough could not happen, because of the power of the dairy lobby in Congress.
Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy — in partnership with Olympic cyclist Dotsie Bausch and her group, Switch4Good — led the fight to correct a policy that was unfair, unhealthy, wasteful, and dismissive of the sacrifices made by cows.
The compromise legislation merges elements of our Freedom in School Cafeterias and Lunches (FISCAL) Act with provisions of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, offering the possibility of a new national policy that is smarter about child nutrition and the prevalence of lactose intolerance, more likely to reduce massive milk wastage, and more alert to the moral problems with industrialized dairy production.
There is the possibility of an enduring win for millions of lactose-intolerant kids. A win for their parents, who know they can get nutritious plant-based milk that won’t make them sick. A win for taxpayers, who won’t see $400 million of their dollars burned up every year because millions of kids throw away the milk put on every tray. And a win for animals, who are the forgotten actors of a government program too long on autopilot.
Because of this legislation:
- Schools will be permitted to offer plant-based milk alternatives as part of their reimbursable meal programs.
- Students with a parent’s note (not just a doctor’s note!) will now be guaranteed access to non-dairy milk, removing unnecessary bureaucratic and stigmatizing hurdles.
- And we’ve taken a powerful first step in loosening the stranglehold of the dairy lobby on school nutrition policy — making room for inclusivity, competition, and common sense.
Let’s be clear: this compromise came only after three years of effort, organizing, and education. It happened because we marshaled facts and rallied voices — more than 200 organizations, including the National Urban League, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, National Rural Education Association, and the Soy Nutrition Institute. And it happened because lawmakers from both parties — with Sens. John Fetterman, John Kennedy, and Cory Booker, and Reps. Troy Carter, Nancy Mace, John Mannion, and Anna Paulina Luna— wanted reform and led the way.
Our legislative and science-based campaign is inverting priorities in the National School Lunch Program. For decades, it was a government program mainly designed to subsidize and benefit the industrialized dairy sector; now, we are making it more about the kids and their needs, and we are also alerting everybody to the sacrifices of cows.
We told the truth: milk makes millions of kids sick. By law, every kid gets a carton on the tray, and a third of the kids toss unopened cartons right into the trash. And the hidden actors involved in this food waste are the cows — animals pushed far beyond their limits only to see the yield from their bodies circling down the drain.
This moment is about more than deft policymaking. It’s about respect for kids’ health, for parental choice, the science of lactose intolerance, and yes, for the animals whose bodies have borne the burden of an outdated federal program.
It’s also about collaboration. The charismatic Dotsie Bausch and her team at Switch4Good were our primary partners. A silver medal winner for the United States in the 2012 London Olympic Games, Bausch presented the milk mandate issue to me three years ago and said, “Together, we have to take this on.” She wrote me a wonderful note last night and asked that I share her thoughts.
“Working arm in arm with Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy has been one of the greatest joys of my life,” she said. “Not only have I learned heaps about the intricacies of passing bills and how to do it right, but I got to experience the true value and efficacy that unfolds when groups in our movement work together for the betterment of all.”
The compromise must still advance through the full Senate and the U.S. House, and we hope to see the bill strengthened further. But this vote shows what’s possible when compassion and pragmatism are forged.
We need your continued support to see this through to the finish line and for so many of our other life-saving campaigns.
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