When someone says "almond milk," you probably know what they're talking about — that white, nutty, possibly sweetened drink that comes in something that looks like a milk carton and is stocked in the dairy aisle.

But if you ask the dairy industry, you'll hear a different story. Almond milk, it insists — along with other alterna-milks made of soy, coconut, cashew, or hemp — is a deceptively marketed product, and an insult to real milk from cows.

In defense of cow milk against its nut-based impostors, Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Democratic Rep. Peter Welch of Vermont in January introduced the DAIRY PRIDE Act, which sounds pretty self-explanatory (pride, dairy products), but actually is an acronym for the "defending against imitations and replacements of yogurt, milk, and cheese to promote regular intake of dairy every day." Seriously.

According to a summary of the bill, the fact that the impostor milks get to call themselves milk "hurts dairy farmers that work tirelessly to ensure their dairy products meet FDA standards and provide the public with nutritious food. It has also led to the proliferation of mislabeled plant-based alternative products that contain a range of ingredients and nutrients that are often not equivalent to the nutrition content of dairy products."

It's an ongoing battle — lawsuits against alterna-milk makers Silk WhiteWave and Trader Joe's have claimed that the label "soy milk" was misleading. Both were dismissed.

Amid all this alleged confusion and chaos in the dairy aisle, consumption of plant milks has skyrocketed. Sales of almond milk grew 250% from 2011 to 2015, while Americans are drinking less dairy milk. In support of the Dairy Pride Act, one farmer said in a statement: “Finally after all these years, it’s about time someone stands up for the American dairy farmer."



But Big Soy isn't backing down. On Thursday, the Good Food Institute — a nonprofit that advocates for plant-based foods — filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration to defend the right of plant-based milk producers to continue calling their beverages "milk," insisting it's a free speech issue.