Alternative milk advocates celebrate ‘end’ of cow’s milk rule

While the dairy industry on Monday celebrated the passage of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, allowing schools to serve whole cow’s milk rather than reduced-fat milk, advocates for non-dairy alternatives characterized a provision that allows schools to serve non-dairy beverages to children with a note from a parent or legal guardian as opposed to a physician as ending a federal mandate that required cow’s milk on every tray.

Animal Wellness Action, the Center for a Humane Economy, and a coalition called Switch4Good said the bill “fundamentally modernizes national school milk policy for the first time in generations,” although that may be a bit of an overstatement since children are already able to request alternatives to cow’s milk if they present a physician’s note.

The House passed the Whole Milk for Health Kids Act on Monday by voice vote. The Senate had passed it earlier, and the bill now goes to President Trump for his signature. In a sign Trump will sign it, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins posted a picture of herself with a glass of whole milk on X.

But the alt-dairy advocates noted that the bill incorporated provisions of the Freedom in the School Cafeterias and Lunches (FISCAL) Act that was sponsored by Reps. Troy Carter, D-La., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., John Kennedy, R-La., and Cory Booker, D-N.J.

“After its 80-year run, the cow’s milk mandate in the National School Lunch Program will end and kids will finally have the choice of selecting a nutritious beverage that they can safely consume,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. “With perhaps 40% of kids in the lunch program showing some degree of lactose intolerance, the long-standing federal policy put millions of kids in a terrible position – drink a beverage that makes them ill or go without any drink and toss the milk in the trash.”

“This is a watershed moment and a tremendous win for our kids, our planet, and the future of school nutrition,” Dotsie Bausch, founder and executive director of Switch4Good, said. “By supporting the inclusion of plant-based milk in the school lunch line, the House has shown that progress, compassion, and science can triumph together. As an Olympic athlete, I’ve spent my life fighting for what fuels health and human potential, and giving children access to healthier options is a victory that will ripple for generations. This is more than policy; this is a powerful step toward a healthier world.”

In a news release, Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy said that roughly one in three Americans is lactose intolerant, with rates far higher among Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, Ashkenazi Jews, and Arabs and that mandatory distribution of milk to them often meant daily discomfort, wasted food, or exclusion from full participation in school meals.

But the groups also signaled their opposition to large-scale dairy farming, saying, “The decades-old federal milk mandate has also imposed real and overlooked costs on animals. By requiring dairy milk on every tray regardless of student demand, with no practical opportunity for non-dairy options, the policy incentivized overproduction in the dairy sector, subjecting millions of cows to intensive, high-output production systems designed to meet government-driven volume rather than actual consumption. Dairy cows are routinely bred, confined, and pushed for maximum milk yield through repeated pregnancies and physically taxing production cycles – only to see a substantial share of that milk discarded unopened.”

“Each cow is now producing about 25,000 pounds of milk a year, and so much of that output is headed straight for the trash bin because many kids know it makes them sick,” said Pacelle. “It’s not fair to the kids for so many reasons or to the cows who endure many physical hardships during production for no good reason.”

Friends of the Earth U.S., the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and other members of the Plant Powered School Meals Coalition also applauded passage of the bill for easing access to alternative beverages.

But these groups said allowing the schools to serve full-fat whole dairy milk goes “against the overwhelming evidence that consumption of saturated fat is linked to cardiovascular disease and other diet-related conditions. However, by expanding access to nondairy milk, the legislation provides students a healthier alternative.”

They added that the Plant Powered School Meals Pilot Act (formerly known as the Healthy Future Students and Earth Act), and a provision in the FISCAL ACT which would require schools to offer soy milk, “await further congressional consideration.”

Center for Science in the Public Interest Federal Child Nutrition Campaign Manager Meghan Maroney said the group supported the amendment to allow “nutritionally equivalent” nondairy beverages to be readily available in school cafeterias, but criticized passage of the bill allowing whole milk.

“The science is clear: Dietary saturated fat increases heart disease risk, the leading cause of death in the U.S. Despite this, S.222/H.R.649 allows full-fat (whole) and reduced-fat (2%) milk to be served in schools and exempts milk’s saturated fat content from counting towards the weekly, science-based saturated fat limits school meals follow,” Maroney said. “75% to 85% of children consume too much saturated fat. This bill thus leaves even more room for excess saturated fat, making this bill the exact opposite of what is needed to improve health outcomes and a clear handout to the dairy industry at the expense of our kids’ health.

“The grim irony of Congress passing the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act is that it follows a series of congressional and administrative actions, including the passage of HR 1, which will weaken the safety-net programs that provide nutritious food to kids. These actions have and will continue to reduce benefits for families with school-aged children, add hurdles to applying for benefits, and cut funding for fresh, locally grown food in schools.”

CSPI praised Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., ranking member on the House Education & the Workforce Committee, who said the bill disregards the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

“This would allow schools participating in the National School Lunch Program to serve dietary options such as whole milk that do not align with the current science-based recommendations, which protect children’s health,” Scott said.

In emails to The Hagstrom Report, both the National Milk Producers Federation and Animal Wellness Action said that under current regulations, soy milk meets the nutritionally equivalent standard.

“I do believe that other plant-based milks are in the process of getting there,” Pacelle said.

Alan Bjerga, a spokesman for the National Milk Producers Federation, said, “We would suggest that true nutritional equivalence is impossible, given that we don’t know what we don’t know about micronutrients, how nutrients interact, etc. But USDA regulations don’t make such distinctions at the present time, and the language being used is consistent with current regs.”

It is unclear what impact the availability of whole milk and alternative milks will have on students’ consumption.

-The Hagstrom Report