October 5, 2018
CapitalPress.com
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FDA seeks consumer comment on plant-based dairy substitutes
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
FDA Commissioner Scott Gott-
lieb has taken the first step in his in-
tention to enforce the agency’s stan-
dard of identity for dairy products,
addressing the labeling of plant-
based foods with dairy terms.
FDA has concerns the labeling of
those products might lead consum-
ers to believe they have the same key
nutritional attributes as dairy prod-
ucts, he said in issuing a request for
information in the Federal Register
on Sept. 27.
Those products are sometimes
packaged similarly to dairy products
and sold in the dairy section of gro-
cery stores, he said.
“However, these plant-based
products may not be satisfactory
Australia,
WSU work
together on
ag robotics
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
substitutes for all uses of dairy. And
some may not be nutritionally equiv-
alent,” he said in a press statement.
cerns about how these plant-based
products are inappropriately market-
ed to consumers,” he said.
FDA’s request for public com-
ment recognizes many of the same
issues NMPF has brought to light
over the last four decades — that
plant-based products are packaged,
merchandized and sold in the same
way as real dairy foods, yet provide
fewer nutrients and therefore cannot
be considered suitable substitutes, he
said.
However, NMPF’s concerns are
not just about nutritional equiva-
lence and the implications for public
health, he said.
“A standardized dairy food, like
milk, yogurt or butter, is defined by
its inherent characteristics including
how and when it’s sourced and its
sensory attributes and performance
properties,” he said.
The American Dairy Coalition
also appreciates Gottlieb’s action.
“Consumers rely on product la-
bels to form expectations of the
products they purchase,” Laurie
Fischer, the coalition’s CEO, told
Capital Press.
It’s important to ensure consum-
ers can quickly, clearly and accu-
rately compare and contrast the nu-
tritional content of the products they
choose to feed their families, she
said.
“While plant-based drinks may
provide something that looks similar
to dairy products, their nutritional
content is far from equal,” she said.
In addition, a variety of other in-
gredients with unfamiliar names are
routinely added to most of these al-
ternative drinks, she said.
FFA Ag Expo offers valuable lessons for young and old
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Now that the Meridian
FFA Elementary Ag Expo has
been around southwest Idaho
for 11 years, many of the
high school students giving
instructions to first-graders
remember what it was like to
be on the receiving end.
Courtney Marshall, Me-
ridian FFA reporter and event
co-chair, recalls attending
the expo at Meridian High
School when she was in first
grade.
“It was a huge highlight of
our year,” she said.
The expo, a field trip for
all first-graders in the West
Ada School District, draws
more than 3,000 students,
plus their teachers and some
parents. It also features an
evening event for the public.
Introducing food pro-
duction makes sense in first
grade because students for
the first time combine infor-
mation-based and hands-on
learning in a full school day,
Brad Carlson/Capital Press
said Cassidey Plum, event
chair and Meridian FFA First-graders pet just-weaned pigs at the Meridian FFA Elementary Ag Expo Sept. 25 at Meridian, Idaho, High School.
chapter vice president.
dents also must be ready
As for lessons the high
“Agriculture is easily over- said. “And they love animals. with peers.
looked, but if you implement They love being able to see
How to interact with and to teach or even entertain school students learn in FFA
it in the classrooms at an ear- and interact with them.”
stay safe around the animals first-graders for short peri- and in class, “now they are
ly age, it will stay with them
The expo benefits FFA is continuously discussed ods, like when they are wait- actually able to apply it, pass
throughout their educational students as well as visiting with the first-grade students. ing in line to enter the main it on and teach first-graders,”
Ball said.
careers,” she said. Earlier, she first-grade teachers, said
Marshall said FFA stu- venue.
gave a tour of the expo to Ida- Michelle Ball, who teaches
ho Agriculture in the Class- agriculture at Meridian and
room board members.
Centennial high schools.
“All are excited,” Mar-
Teachers get material they
shall said Sept. 25, the first can incorporate into lessons,
day of the three-day expo.
and FFA students working in
Miriam Lott, who teach- the expo learn skills not eas-
es first grade at Pioneer Ele- ily replicated in a classroom,
mentary School, liked what she said. They include orga-
she saw of the event and her nizing and running the event,
seeing a need and fulfilling
students’ response.
“Because there is a lot to it, teaching young students
see, they are interested,” she and advising and cooperating
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PULLMAN, Wash. — To
speed robotic advancements
that help farmers grow food
with fewer resources, scien-
tists at Washington State Uni-
versity and Australia’s Uni-
versity of Technology Sydney
have partnered to form the
new Joint Center for Agricul-
tural Robotics.
The partnership joins
WSU scientists’ expertise in
innovative automation solu-
tions for farms and orchards
with pre-eminent research in
robotics at the University of
Technology Sydney’s (UTS)
Centre for Autonomous Sys-
tems.
Through innovations like
apple-picking robots, sen-
sor-driven high efficiency irri-
gation systems and crop-sens-
ing drones, discoveries in
agricultural automation could
boost productivity, save labor,
conserve natural resources
and reduce dependence on
chemicals.
Australian
scientists
toured WSU’s Center for
Precision and Automated Ag-
ricultural Systems and signed
an agreement for the new
joint center. The universities
have been exchanging ideas
and discussing collaboration
since 2015.
The new center could spur
team projects, joint work-
shops, conferences and publi-
cations, exchange of students
and faculty and joint applica-
tions for funding.
Associated Press File
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is
seeking information on the nutritional
content of plant-based drinks that label
themselves “milk.”
“We’re interested to know if con-
sumers are aware of and understand
the nutritional characteristics and
differences among these products
— and between these products and
dairy — when they make dietary
choices for themselves and their
families,” he said.
National Milk Producers Federa-
tion, which has long tried to get FDA
to enforce its labeling regulations on
imitation dairy products, welcomes
the agency’s action.
Hopefully, FDA will finally cur-
tail the misleading labeling practices
of plant-based foods imitating real
dairy products, Jim Mulhern, NMPF
president and CEO, said in a press
statement.
“We are pleased that after all these
years of engagement with FDA, the
agency is finally addressing our con-
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