Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit
5o1ecist | on: A plastic made from milk that vanishes in 13 weeks
I remember when people still knew what milk was ... and what was not milk.

That was before multi-billion-dollar companies came up with marketing strategies that manipulated people into not understanding what milk was, instead making them believe that milk is whatever they tell people.

Usually, the reaction to this is "Well, language and the meaning of words change." ... Sure, but that argument comes in complete ignorance of the fact that it only happened, because people with too much money and power can manipulate millions into believing whatever these millions of people are supposed to believe.

Thus now anything can be milk, as long as some profit-oriented company decides that people shall call it milk.

This practise has become the norm to a degree that people will not only generally accept it, but also generally defend it. Pure madness.

systoll | parent | next
Language changes. In this case just the spelling though.

"Almaund mylke" is all over medieval cookery manuscripts, among other options.

We’ve been using milk for non-animal products for longer than we’ve spelt milk with an i, and for longer than we’ve had companies, let alone multi-billion-dollar ones.

OkayPhysicist | parent | next
To be clear, Perfect Day doesn't make "milk" like plant-based milks (think almond "milk", oat "milk", etc). They bioengineered some yeast to grow whey protein directly. The milk they make (made?) probably wouldn't be considered "milk" in the strict sense (they had to get the fat and sugars from plants), but there's really not a good reason to distinguish between "whey protein from cows" and "whey protein from yeast" when it's the same stuff.
ahhhhnoooo | parent | next
You understand that the product I'm talking about is the same proteins as milk, and is essentially whey, right?

I'm not talking about grinding up nuts or grains and calling it milk, I'm talking about engineering yeasts to literally produce the proteins that milk has to create a product that isn't just milk-like, but is literally identical proteins.

tredre3 | root | parent
Whey is just a small part of milk, though. You can't isolate one aspect and pretend it's fair to call it (cow) milk.

You wouldn't call whey protein powder mixed in water milk.

You wouldn't call butter mixed with water milk.

You wouldn't call casein powder mixed with water milk.

qff | parent | next
The large diary producers are forcing things that everyone understand what is — “Oat milk” and “Almond milk” — to be called “Oat drink” and “Almond drink”. New terms for things that have existed for decades.

Really, we should be calling the OG milk “cow milk” and let the good times roll.

Big milk have been pushing questionable health research and narratives for cow milk for quite some time.

All this coming from someone (me) who drinks 0,5L of cow milk every day.

Yes, yeast milk is milk too. Just like coconut milk.

throwway120385 | root | parent
I thought the reason things are called "Oat Drink" versus "Oat Milk" is because non-dairy "milks" have to be fortified with vitamin D and calcium and the stuff that's labeled a "drink" is not fortified.
vlabakje90 | parent
The first documented use of the word coconut milk in English dates from 1698 ( Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, volume 20, page 333) and the use of almond milk goes quite a bit further back, to at least 1390 (The Forme of Cury).