Vegans are the NEW ‘milk snatchers’: Meat-free campaigners push for dairy-free alternative to the white stuff on school menu… 49 years after Margaret Thatcher stopped benefit for over 7s
- Vegans and doctors pressuring government to take cow’s milk off school menus
- They want plant-based alternatives high in calcium to be subsidised instead
- Evokes Margaret Thatcher’s decision to take milk away from over-7s in effort to cut government spending
Vegan campaigners are attempting to complete Margaret Thatcher’s work – by getting free cow’s milk taken off of school menus.
But unlike the former Education Secretary, the group want it replaced with a plant-based alternative enriched with calcium.
Plant Based Health Professionals UK, which advocates a move to a vegan diet for every age group, say that access to fruits and vegetables is more beneficial than cattle by-products.
About 1.5 million children receive free or subsidised cow’s milk through official schemes, costing about £3 million a year in England.
Vegan campaigners want free cow’s milk taken off of school menus and replaced with plant-based alternatives enriched with calcium
‘Free’ school milk is subsidised for children aged over five, and free for children from low-income families.
But while schools are allowed to serve plant-based alternatives if they are calcium-enriched, they cannot be subsidised under the current rules.
‘The only reason dairy is so cheap is because it gets subsidised,’ Dr Shireen Kassam, founder of Plant Based Health Professionals UK, told The Times.
‘The wrong foods are being subsidised. We need to subsidise fruits, vegetables and legumes.’
‘Free’ school milk is subsidised for children aged over five, and free for children from low-income families. It was first introduced by Labour in 1946 while rationing was still in place
He was joined by calls from the Vegan Society for vegan parents to be supported to raise their children ‘in line with their beliefs in the same way you’d expect any parent to be supported’.
There are also concerns that the current scheme unfairly disadvantages children with conditions brought on by drinking milk products.
In the UK, 22 per cent of white adults are lactose intolerant, and the likelihood of having the condition is higher in those from Asian or African-Caribbean backgrounds.
Dr Kassam criticised a £1 million campaign by Dairy UK called ‘Milk Your Moments’ which focused on ‘driving dairy occasions’ and ‘moments of connection’ during the pandemic.
The push against cow’s milk evokes similarities to Thatcher’s decision 49 years ago to end free milk for primary school children over 7 while she was Education Secretary
It was joint funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as well as the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive.
The push against cow’s milk evokes similarities to Thatcher’s decision 49 years ago to end free milk for primary school children over 7.
The Nursery Milk scheme had been introduced by Labour in 1946 to give children a nutritional boost at a time when food was rationed, but Ted Heath’s 1971 government believed the programme was unnecessarily costly following the end of rationing.
A government spokesman said: ‘The School Food Standards require lower fat or lactose-reduced milk to be available in schools to children who want it during school hours.
‘Milk must be provided free of charge to pupils eligible for free school meals, and our school and nursery milk schemes contribute funding to provide a daily portion of dairy milk or milk products to children as part of a healthy and balanced diet.’
Dr Judith Bryans, the chief executive of Dairy UK, said: ‘Milk is nutritious, sustainable, accessible, tasty and affordable for both schools and families alike. There is therefore no merit in replacing or removing school milk provision.’