by Michelle C. Pardo<\/p>\n
Tofurky goes to court \u2013 again. On July 22nd, Turtle Island Foods (doing business as The Tofurky Company) filed a federal lawsuit in the Eastern District of Arkansas against the Arkansas Bureau of Standards to challenge the constitutionality of an amended Arkansas law that prohibits \u201cpurveyors of plant- or cell-based meats\u201d from using the words \u201cmeat\u201d and related terms like \u201cbeef,\u201d \u201cpork,\u201d \u201croast,\u201d and \u201csausage.\u201d See <\/em>Ark. Code Ann. \u00a7 2-1-305. Violations of the law, which goes into effect on July 24, 2019, may be punished by civil penalty up to $1,000. Counsel for Tofurky includes animal activist group Animal Legal Defense Fund, the ACLU Foundation, and The Good Food Institute, a Washington, DC based advocacy group (whose founder previously ran vegan campaigns for PETA). All of these organizations previously teamed up with Tofurky<\/a> to challenge Missouri\u2019s amended meat advertising law.<\/p>\n The stated legislative purpose of the Arkansas law is to require truth in labeling and to protect consumers from being misled or confused. The law defines \u201cmeat\u201d as \u201ca portion of a livestock, poultry or cervid carcass that is edible by humans.\u201d It further states that meat \u201cdoes not include\u201d \u201c(i) synthetic products derived from a plant, insect or other source; or (ii) product grown in a laboratory from animal cells.\u201d Ark. Code Ann. \u00a7 2-1-302(7) (A) & (B). In addition to restrictions on use of the term \u201cmeat\u201d and related terms, the law also bans companies from labeling vegetables, such as cauliflower, as \u201crice.\u201d Arkansas is the nation\u2019s top rice producer.<\/p>\n In its lawsuit, plaintiff Tofurky alleges that the Arkansas law restricts commercial speech and prevents companies from sharing \u201ctruthful and non-misleading information\u201d about their food products and \u201cdoes nothing to protect the public from potentially misleading information.\u201d Tofurky product labels include terms such as \u201cburgers,\u201d \u201cchorizo style sausage,\u201d \u201cslow roasted chick\u2019n,\u201d \u201chot dogs\u201d and \u201cham roast,\u201d some of which are coupled with qualifiers such as \u201cveggie,\u201d \u201cplant-based\u201d and \u201cvegetarian.\u201d Tofurky alleges that their labels include modifiers that clearly indicate that the products do not contain meat from slaughtered animals and include package photos in the complaint. Some of the package photos show that the meat-related terms are more prominently featured on the label than the plant-based terms.<\/p>\n Supporters of meat advertising laws disagree with Tofurky\u2019s allegations and claim that plant-based food manufacturers utilize meat and meat-related words to deliberately try to confuse consumers in order to get unwary customers to purchase their products.<\/p>\n Tofurky and The Good Food Institute disagree. They have argued that such laws are not aimed at alleviating consumer confusion, but rather a way to protect the agriculture industry\u2019s meat producers from competition. An ACLU attorney, commenting on the Arkansas law, has stated: \u201cIt\u2019s absurdly patronizing that the government of Arkansas is asserting that the people of Arkansas can\u2019t tell a \u2018veggie burger\u2019 from a \u2018hamburger\u2019 or a \u2018tofu dog\u2019 from a \u2018hot dog.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 But confusion between “chicken” and “chick’n” seems much less absurd than many consumer fraud cases brought by animal and environmental activists that populate court dockets across the country.<\/p>\n Restrictions on meat advertising are not just a creature of American law. This past spring, the European Parliament\u2019s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development agreed to seek to restrict plant-based products from being labeled as steak, sausage, escalope (a thin slice of meat without any bone), burger or hamburger. Under the EU rules proposed in Brussels, veggie burgers could be re-branded as \u201cveggie discs\u201d and vegetarian sausages as, the incredibly appetizing \u201cveggie tubes.\u201d\u00a0 The proposal will be voted on in the fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Michelle C. Pardo Tofurky goes to court \u2013 again. On July 22nd, Turtle Island Foods (doing business as The Tofurky Company) filed a federal lawsuit in the Eastern District of Arkansas against the Arkansas Bureau of Standards to challenge the constitutionality of an amended Arkansas law that prohibits \u201cpurveyors of plant- or cell-based meats\u201d … <\/p>\n