An advocacy group that has repeatedly tangled with the dairy industry launched a new attack Tuesday, filing lawsuits alleging false advertising for claiming that milk helps in weight loss.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) said one lawsuit filed is intended as a class action against the industry to stop the ads, while a second suit seeks monetary damages.
Targets in the lawsuits include Kraft Foods Inc., General Mills, Danone unit Dannon and trade groups including the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), accusing them of falsely marketing dairy milk as good for weight loss, said Howard White, a spokesman for PCRM.
“The dairy industry is looking at falling sales and is attempting to boost its bottom line by aiming at America’s waistline,” White said.
History of battles
Susan Ruland, a spokeswoman for the dairy group, said PCRM has no legitimate nutritional criticism and instead opposed the use of animal products.
“These are the same people who throw paint on people who wear fur. They’ve just gotten slicker in their approaches,” she said.
The PCRM has a history of battles with the dairy industry, and has filed numerous petitions with regulators for what it has claimed was deceptive marketing.
The suits were filed in a Virginia court on behalf of Catherine Holmes, who claims she gained weight after drinking milk in amounts the industry recommends.
Earlier this month, PCRM launched an advertising campaign in Washington proposing a class action suit on behalf of any lactose intolerant people.
“You start talking about millions of dollars” in damages if hundreds of thousands of people who have unwittingly drank milk and suffered stomach aches and diarrhea agree to sign on to the lawsuit, said PCRM attorney Dan Kinburn.
Critics, including the dairy industry, have pointed to the advocacy group’s connections with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an animal rights group. They say the relationship calls into question whether it really seeks nutritional reform, or animal rights reform.
On its 2004 tax filing, PETA reported $3 million in donations to a group called the Foundation to Support Animal Protection, which lists PCRM President Neal D. Barnard as its own president.
“We’re not PETA and never will be,” White said, “They go their way and we go ours.” White said the PCRM has “dealt with PETA on issues,” but only in the past.
Industry connections
While the group cautions the public about the potential hazards of drinking milk, it does advocate soy milk.
On its U.S. federal tax form covering the period from August 2001 to July 31, 2003, the PCRM lists a $7,608 donation from Vitasoy USA, Inc., a division of Hong Kong soy milk producer Vitasoy International Holdings Ltd.
White acknowledged the relationship. “We’re very consistent,” he said, “We’d love to see people drink soy milk for reasons that have nothing to do with these lawsuits.”
But he claimed possible conflicts of interest involving Michael Zemel, a professor of nutrition at the University of Tennessee who has authored studies cited by the dairy industry purporting to demonstrate how milk can aid weight loss.
“I do accept money from the industry” for studies, Zemel told Reuters. “But they don’t get to control the outcomes or the reporting of the outcomes.”
