͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌To prevent cruelty to animals, we promote enacting and enforcing good public policies. To enact good laws, we must elect good lawmakers, and that’s why we remind voters which candidates care about our issues and which ones don’t. If you’d like to unsubscribe, click here. [[link removed]]

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Dear Friend,
Three years ago, we worked in Congress to eliminate an 84-year-old archaic, wasteful, and inhumane animal-testing requirement for new drug development. Today, we took a huge step to eliminate an 80-year-old “cow’s milk mandate” in the National School Lunch Program.
Let me tell you why that’s been such a bad policy for America’s kids and taxpayers and also for the cows.
Dismantling the ‘Milk Mandate’ in the National School Lunch Program
The U.S. Senate today unanimously passed an amended version of S. 222, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act—legislation that reinstates whole and 2% dairy milk in school meals but, for the first time since the 1940s, includes provisions to expand access to plant-based milks in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).
This is the most significant break yet from the longstanding rule that only cow’s milk could be served with federally subsidized meals. This program was an example of heavy-handed government intervention in dietary choices. Our government gave a monopoly to the dairy industry, even though millions and millions of kids cannot safely drink milk because they are lactose intolerant.
Under the new legislation:
* Schools may offer dairy-free milk to students as part of their regular lunchroom options, as well as whole and 2% milk again, as part of the NSLP.
* More importantly, schools will now be required to provide lactose-intolerant kids with a dairy-free beverage—such as soy, oat, or almond milk—with a note from a parent, guardian, or licensed physician specifying whatever dairy-free beverage should be served to the student.
This reform finally acknowledges the reality that lactose intolerance is widespread among children in the NSLP. USDA statistics reveal that 29% of milk cartons in schools are discarded unopened—wasting an estimated $300–$500 million of taxpayer dollars annually.
It makes perfect sense that kids who cannot drink milk toss it. And let’s remember that 60–80% of African American children, 80–90% of Native American children, 90–95% of Asian American children, and more than half of Latino children, along with many students of Greek, Italian, Jewish, and Arab descent, are lactose intolerant.
Why This Matters for Kids, Taxpayers, and Animals
The government’s milk mandate produced extraordinary waste—of food, of taxpayer dollars, and of the physical labor demanded from cows bred for unimaginably high yields of milk. Today’s Holsteins produce six to seven times more milk each year than they did when this mandate was created in the 1940s.
That level of output carries steep animal-welfare costs, contributing to lameness, chronic joint problems, “downer cows,” and early slaughter.
This change also represents progress for fairness in the marketplace. Plant-based milks are one of the fastest-growing categories in the consumer packaged goods sector, generating billions in economic activity and supporting tens of thousands of jobs. Allowing schools to serve plant-based milks brings federal policy into line with a modern understanding of nutrition and medicine, modern markets, and modern values.
Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy worked closely with Switch4Good [[link removed]] and its leader, Olympic medalist Dotsie Bausch, for this outcome today in the Senate. We’ve also worked alongside Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., John Kennedy, R-La., and Cory Booker, D-N.J.—the authors of the Freedom in School Cafeterias and Lunches (FISCAL) Act—a portion of which was inserted into the Whole Milk bill to bring broader choice in the National School Lunch Program. U.S. Reps. Troy Carter, D-La., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced companion legislation in the House.
We are also grateful to Sens. Angela Alsobrooks and Rev. Raphael Warnock, who pressed for explicit statutory recognition of lactose intolerance and secured commitments to address it in future legislation. Sen. Alsobrooks spoke on the floor today and educated other senators about widespread lactose intolerance among tens of millions of Americans.
S. 222 now moves to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass. While this is not the final step toward comprehensive reform, it marks the beginning of the end of the cow’s milk mandate, a more promising circumstance for kids who cannot safely or do not wish to drink cow’s milk, and a boon for taxpayers who won’t have to pay for milk thrown into the trash every school day in thousands of communities in America.
We fight every day for stronger policies for animals and people. Today’s Senate action is another clear example of that work and an important outcome that reflects our leadership in the animal-welfare arena. [[link removed]]

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Working for the benefit of animals and people,

Wayne Pacelle [[link removed]] Wayne Pacelle
President
Animal Wellness Action
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