BATON ROUGE (The Advertiser)— A bill designed to make sure you know a veggie burger doesn’t come from a cow closed in on final passage Monday, while a similar measure making sure you know soy milk doesn’t come from a cow has already cleared the Legislature.

The Louisiana House voted 58-29 Monday to pass Senate Bill 152 by Sen. Francis Thompson, D-Delhi, which is designed as a truth-in-labeling measure. For example, it wouldn’t allow labeling like “cauliflower rice.”

It must return to the Senate for concurrence of House amendments before final passage.

“This is an agriculture state and this is a Louisiana bill supporting our farmers,” said state Rep. Katrina Jackson, D-Monroe, when advocating for passage. “I think the labeling is confusing.”

Republican Rep. John M. Stefanski, whose hometown Crowley is considered the rice capital of Louisiana, carried the bill in the House for Thompson.

“All we’re asking is you call it what it is,” Stefanski said.

While both bills have drawn bipartisan support in the Legislature, they’ve been mocked on some social media platforms.

And some members in the House questioned whether reasonable consumers could really be tricked into thinking “cauliflower rice” is actual rice.

Senate Bill 39 prevent plant-based products from carrying milk labels, but it would only be triggered if similar federal guidelines are set.

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