Back in 2023, we talked about a strange trademark dispute out of the UK concerning oat-based milk products. Specifically, Oatly, a large producer of oat milk, applied for a trademark in the UK for …
      • birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        51·
        2 days ago

        I know you said /s, but just for clarity for others:

        If it tastes like milk, feels like milk, and looks like milk, it’s milk to me

        • CerebralHawks@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          110·
          2 days ago

          Yeah and I meant it.

          I don’t mind vegan alternatives. I even accept that some of them are better for people/the ecology of the planet. I just wish they’d use their own words rather than encroach upon “carnivores” words for food. Like don’t call it a burger if it doesn’t have any meat, etc. If they don’t respect their customers enough to be honest with them and not try to trick them, why should we trust them to do X, Y, or Z? One of those could be “to be ecologically responsible” and another (or part of that other) could be “to not include animal byproducts”. I mean if you’re gonna use the name, why should we trust it doesn’t actually contain animal products?

          Not a vegan myself (nor opposed to veganism) but I do enjoy when vegan companies get smacked down by courts for impersonating non-vegan products. I think they should get their own names for things and sell veganism on its own merits rather than try to deceive people. And if vegans can’t get by without deceiving themselves, are they really serious about it in the first place?

          • VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            6·
            2 days ago

            I don’t see the deception. ‘vegan sausage’ ah, it’s a sausage but without meat. ‘vegan burger patty’ ah, it’s a burger patty but without meat. ‘oat milk’ ah, it’s like milk, but made from oat.

            It is an easy and accurate way to describe what they are selling - a product intended to replace a specific animal product. No one is going to call a block of tofu a vegan steak - if that’s the name, it will be a product as much like a real stake as the producer can muster.

            Why make things more complicated than they are?

          • birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            61·
            2 days ago

            How is it tricking? They clearly call it ‘vegan/vegetarian X’. Nobody’s fooled, that’s just big meat industries being angry because vegan is growing. They could try switching to those too, spares a lot of animal suffering AND CO2 while satisfying the palate. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

            You’re being fed propaganda by those meat industries. Don’t fall for it.

            It ain’t encroaching if a herring is called a ‘codfish-like fish’, and nobody’s attacking ya. Everyone understands what’s meant with it: it’s a vegan thing that tastes like an X. That’s how it’s used. Prohibiting that makes it needlessly hard to compare.

            • CerebralHawks@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              11·
              2 days ago

              Because they need to call it milk, they know if they call it something else (like give it a name that accurately describes it), it’ll sell less. They don’t believe in vegans to support them. They want to convince you it’s a healthier kind of milk and not something else entirely.