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<\/a><\/p>\n(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n WASHINGTON D.C.\u2013\u2013<\/strong>What did Cory Booker, \u00a058,\u00a0 U.S. Senator from New Jersey,\u00a0 do on April 1,\u00a0 2025,\u00a0 soon after completing his record 25-hours-and-five minute speech from the Senate floor,\u00a0 denouncing the policies of U.S. president Donald Trump?<\/p>\n After spending the duration of his speech on his feet,\u00a0 without food or so much as a bathroom break,\u00a0 breaking the \u201clongest Senate speech\u201d record set in 1957 by Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina,\u00a0 Booker did not go straight home to sleep.<\/p>\n New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.<\/strong><\/em> Instead,\u00a0 the official Congress,gov web site indicates,\u00a0 Booker quietly seconded S. 1235, officially described as \u201cA bill to amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to require schools to offer a variety of milk to students participating in the school lunch program.\u201d<\/p>\n Richard B. Russell,\u00a0 a U.S. Senator from Georgia,\u00a0 longtime colleague of Strom Thurmond,\u00a0 introduced the National School Lunch Act in 1946, \u00a0soon signed into law by then-U.S. president Harry Truman.<\/p>\n The mandate that milk be served as a part of school lunches was added in 1954.<\/p>\n Shaquille O\u2019Neal posed for the National Dairy Council\u2019s \u201cGot Milk?\u201d campaign. His son Miles O\u2019Neal posed to promote Silk brand soy milk.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em>(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Both Thurmond and Russell were avowed segregationists,\u00a0 who opposed every major civil rights bill introduced during their political careers.<\/p>\n Indeed,\u00a0 Thurmond\u2019s previous record 24-hour,\u00a0 18-minute filibuster came in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957,\u00a0 the first civil rights bill to become law since 1875.<\/p>\n Both in breaking Thurmond\u2019s record for \u201clongest Senate speech,\u201d\u00a0 and in seeking to amend the National School Lunch Act,\u00a0 Booker struck at the racist legacies that were Thurmond and Russell\u2019s proudest achievements;\u00a0 but only the Thurmond filibuster was widely recognized as such.<\/p>\n \u201cThe majority of children of color are lactose intolerant, \u00a0and yet our school lunch program makes it difficult [for them] to access nutritious, \u00a0non-dairy beverages,\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0explained Booker in October 2023,\u00a0 as co-author of a forerunner to S. 1253 called the Addressing Digestive Distress in Stomachs of Our Youth (ADD SOY) Act.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (See <\/em>The USDA \u201cmilk mandate\u201d:\u00a0 a black-&-white issue on school lunch trays<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe must ensure that all children have access to nutrient-rich drink options that do not make them sick,\u201d\u00a0 Booker said.<\/p>\n The proposed ADD SOY Act died with the close of the 118th Congress.<\/p>\n Now dubbed the \u201cFreedom in School Cafeterias & Lunches (FISCAL) Act,\u00a0 introduced into the House of Representatives as HR 2539,\u00a0 the bill at the moment has only one Senate cosponsor,\u00a0 Senator John Kennedy,\u00a0 a Louisiana Republican,\u00a0 and only one sponsor in the House,\u00a0 Representative Troy Carter,\u00a0 a Louisiana Democrat.<\/p>\n Despite the very long odds against passing either S. 1253 or HR 2539 through the 119th Congress,\u00a0 and the near certainty that Donald Trump would veto either version,\u00a0 even if passed,\u00a0 Animal Wellness Action president Wayne Pacelle strongly endorsed both versions hours after Booker,\u00a0 Kennedy,\u00a0 and Carter introduced them.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s no secret that powerful animal use interests \u2014 the industrial pork producers, \u00a0the western ranching industry, \u00a0and laboratory animal breeders, \u00a0just to name a few \u2014 exert disproportionate control over federal agencies,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle began.<\/p>\n \u201cIn political science terms, it\u2019s called \u2018industry capture,\u2019\u00a0 and some federal agencies, \u00a0such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA], \u00a0are experts at serving these masters.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to animals and their well-being, \u00a0these industry groups generally don\u2019t give a damn and generally treat any animal welfare standards as a \u2018regulatory burden,\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle observed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe dairy lobby is perhaps king when it comes to industry capture of government,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle charged. \u00a0The USDA funnels billions of tax dollars to producers,\u201d\u00a0 including perhaps most egregiously through the \u201cmilk mandate\u201d in the National School Lunch Program.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The \u201cmilk mandate\u201d means,\u00a0 Pacelle explained,\u00a0 that \u201cThe government denies local school districts reimbursement for the costs of breakfast and lunch offerings unless the school places cows\u2019 milk on the trays of every student receiving nutrition assistance, \u00a0whether the child wants the milk or not.<\/p>\n \u201cThis program operates even though as many as half of the 30 million kids getting this form of nutrition assistance are lactose intolerant.<\/p>\n \u201cThe\u00a0incidence of lactose sensitivity is especially high\u00a0among non-white ethnic groups,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle emphasized, \u00a0as Booker had earlier,\u00a0 \u201cwith up to 75% of African Americans, \u00a065% of Latinos, and more than 90% of Asian Americans and Native Americans suffering the often-incapacitating effects of lactose sensitivity.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe National Institutes of Health reports that the majority of all people have a reduced ability to digest lactose after infancy,\u00a0 and lactose sensitivity \u201cis also very common in people of West African, Arab, \u00a0Jewish, \u00a0Greek, \u00a0and Italian descent,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle recited.<\/p>\n \u201cTo remedy this unfairness and unwind a rigged food assistance program,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle said, \u00a0\u201cmore than 200 organizations support\u201d S. 1253 and HR 2539.<\/p>\n \u201cThis legislation,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle detailed,\u00a0 \u201crequires public schools to offer children a plant-based milk option that meets USDA nutritional standards as part of the National School Lunch Program.\u201d<\/p>\n Among those 200 organizations,\u00a0 Pacelle listed,\u00a0 \u201care the National Urban League, \u00a0the National Rural Education Association, \u00a0the Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America, \u00a0International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders, \u00a0Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Connection Team, \u00a0American Soybean Association, \u00a0and the Coalition for Healthy School Food,\u201d\u00a0 along with the anti-dairy group Switch4Good.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cGiven this widespread physical aversion to cows\u2019 milk,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle continued, \u00a0\u201cit is no surprise that according to the USDA\u2019s own review, \u00a029% of the milk cartons served in our schools are thrown unopened into the garbage.<\/p>\n \u201cA\u00a02017 study\u00a0focused on 60 schools in a medium-sized urban district concluded that \u201cof the total milk offered to School Breakfast Program participants, \u00a045% was wasted,\u201d\u00a0 equivalent to the total milk output resulting from the births of 21,500 calves to an equal number of cows.<\/p>\n \u201cAdd all of that up and it amounts to $400 million a year in squandered taxpayer dollars,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle charged,\u00a0 a fact that should interest Elon Musk and his Department of Governmental Efficiency,\u00a0 but so far has not and is unlikely to.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYet despite eight decades of this collusion between industry and government,\u201d\u00a0 meant to habituate children to lifelong milk consumption, \u201cit is not working. \u00a0Consumption of fluid milk has declined by half in the last 40 years.\u201d<\/p>\n Pacelle concluded with several paragraphs pointing out the suffering of the cattle involved,\u00a0 \u201cfrom inflammation of the udders to foot and leg problems resulting from the massive body mass the cow must support,\u201d\u00a0 to say nothing of the surplus calves sent to early slaughter.<\/p>\n Cover of The Fruit of the Tree by Charles W. Forward.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em>(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Very likely neither Booker nor Pacelle ever heard of Charles Walter Forward (1863-1934),\u00a0 the English author of Fifty Years of Food Reform<\/em> (1898),\u00a0 who became vegan at age 15 after childhood illnesses that killed his siblings in infancy and often kept Forward himself out of school.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Hong Kong animal advocate and humane movement historian John F. Edmundson,\u00a0 however,\u00a0 on April 5,\u00a0 2025 posted an excerpt from Forward\u2019s 1924 book The Fruit of the Tree: an argument on behalf of man\u2019s primitive and natural diet<\/em>,\u00a0 presaging Booker and Pacelle sufficiently that one could imagine they channeled him.<\/p>\n \u201cThe milk industry is well-organized and very profitable,\u201d\u00a0 began Forward, \u00a0\u201cand it is not surprising that every effort should be made to maintain the superstition that milk is indispensable.\u00a0 Enormous sums are paid by local authorities for grants of milk to poor families where there are young children, \u00a0a very doubtful benefit in view of the many dangers associated with contaminated milk.<\/p>\nBooker introduced a bill \u2013\u2013 for the second time\u2013\u2013seeking to add soy milk to National School Lunch Program options<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
(Wikipedia photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nProposed amendment to Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nSegregationists<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cADD SOY Act\u201d recycled<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cIndustry capture\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nWhat the \u201cmilk mandate\u201d means<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nPlant-based milk option<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nGarbage<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nEight decades of collusion<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nCharles Walter Forward<\/h2>\n