which is so chauvinistically called the nut
June 14, 2017 11:41 PM Subscribe
I Feel It Is My Duty to Speak Out
Dear WhiteWave Foods,Virtuosic structuralist analysis/griping from Sally O'Reilly.
I am writing to complain about one of your products: namely, Silk Cashewmilk (with a touch of almond). I imagine that you receive many complaints about your use of the word “milk,” and frequent challenges to specify where exactly on the cashew nut the teats are located. This, however, is not a problem for me, since I simply mop up what I take to be a sloppy euphemism with a pair of quotation marks. No, what I wish to complain about is the recent redesign of your half-gallon “milk” cartons.
She keeps putting milk in quotation marks - "milk". But plant derived products are a perfectly acceptable use of the word, in fact more or less any creamily textured emulsion can arguably be called a milk (it may benefit from being pale). The words emulsion and milk share a common heritage linguistically and if you can have "milk of magnesia" I'm not sure why "milk of cashew" is so offensive. In fact I'd call it Cashew "nut" milk. True quotation wielding pedants know that a cashew seed is no nut.
posted by samworm at 12:08 AM on June 15, 2017 [40 favorites]
posted by samworm at 12:08 AM on June 15, 2017 [40 favorites]
Revisionist pedants, maybe.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 12:11 AM on June 15, 2017
posted by Joseph Gurl at 12:11 AM on June 15, 2017
EU court bans dairy-style names for soya and tofu.
posted by Pendragon at 12:18 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Pendragon at 12:18 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
Please hold for Snoop Dogg.
posted by Literaryhero at 1:07 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Literaryhero at 1:07 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
What are the objects in the round photo on Sally O'Reilly's website? They look familiar but alien at the same time.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:08 AM on June 15, 2017
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:08 AM on June 15, 2017
Is it the combined might of the African Cashew Alliance, the African Cashew Initiative, the National Council of Benin Cashew Exporters, the Brazilian Cashew Nut Manufacturers’ Association, the World Cashew Nut Alliance, and the Vietnam Cashew Exporters’ Association that silences you? Or do the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council, the Combined Edible Nut Trade Association, or the International Nut Council tie your hands on the matter?
In which the author insinuates that Big Nut is exercising pernicious influence over public discourse on the issue.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:00 AM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
In which the author insinuates that Big Nut is exercising pernicious influence over public discourse on the issue.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:00 AM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
But plant derived products are a perfectly acceptable use of the word...
There are even plants whose name includes it -- milkweed!
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:12 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
There are even plants whose name includes it -- milkweed!
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:12 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
I feel compelled to disagree with Ms. O'Reilly's criticism over the packaging of Silk Cashew Original. Like Ms. O'Reilly I too will set aside argument over nomenclature, leaving the debates on whether milk is and must be an absolute word of definition confined to the signature mammalian process of lactation or whether the qualities of that remarkable life sustaining liquid can be used in figurative celebration of some element of milk's constituent properties for those more philosophically inclined.
No, my dispute with Ms. O'Reilly is over her desire to render fixed the image of the cashew as a boisterous devil-may-care hedonist. The cashew, I say, is no mere madcap. There is more to its existence than mere frivolity!
It is not, I assure you, any intent of mine to deny pleasure seeking for its own sake as a sometimes necessary pastime. Who among us has not hearkened back to days of youth where worries were few and the possibilities of future pleasure extended before us seeming without end? It is a reverie much indulged in, but that indulgence should not, simply due to its ease of diversion, allow us to forget the quieter moments of childhood nor the many more adult pleasures that accompany responsibility.
To desire so intently that moment of pleasure, when, in Ms. O'Reilly's apt analogy, the two cashews, like game siblings, plunge into their fates without also allowing for the later calm, represented so well on the newer packaging, where those same two siblings are at rest after a days gambols with perhaps whispers of secrets passing between them recounting the events of the day past and hopes for days to come, is to favor the brashness of action at the expense of the intimacy in repose. Is it not brashness that so well characterizes much of this current political climate? Is it not a lack of intimacy between fellows, a lack of thoughts and hopes shared that we now suffer from?
No, it is not now a time to be caught up in celebrating past glories. It is a time for more considered reflection, a time of care and planning, not further recklessness.
This of course applies too to the subsuming liquid. Formerly agitated and threatening to spill over as result of the heedless abandon of the exuberant pair, it now shows minimal disruption, with the pair now seeming nestled in a more welcoming environment with threat of danger gone, but pleasure of place not diminished.
Ms. O'Reilly's point on the retreat from realism in the packaging has some merit to be sure, but is this a time to be caught up in trying to quantify differences? A time to demand recounting of our many individual imperfections and the varying distinctions between the genera of allies and kin? Perhaps. I would ne'er deign assert any absolute principle in regards to when best to take account of one's own flaws or group failures, but so too would I caution against o'er focus on such minor variance when greater external conflict threatens. We'll all suffer if the "milk" runs dry and the nuts are left to their own devices.
Unlike Ms. O'Reilly who seems to want desire a return to an earlier time, or simply to retard time's change entirely, I see this new packaging as part of an ongoing saga of Silk Cashew Original, and, through analogy, one regarding all of our lives. There is, to me, no single idyllic moment to which we can return again and again, continuing to find the same pleasure we once had with delight in our dreams of the carefree. We instead store away such moments, such memories for use in later times as a balm to our troubles while seeking to continue the story and find newer, more diverse accommodation for our desires.
It is not avoidance of simple pleasure of the moment that the new Silk Cashew Original packaging proffers, but enrichment of those simple pleasures with further exploration of possibilities. There is no call to forget the old Silk Cashew Original packaging here, rather an offer to supplement that happy memory with another new experience.
posted by gusottertrout at 2:21 AM on June 15, 2017 [19 favorites]
No, my dispute with Ms. O'Reilly is over her desire to render fixed the image of the cashew as a boisterous devil-may-care hedonist. The cashew, I say, is no mere madcap. There is more to its existence than mere frivolity!
It is not, I assure you, any intent of mine to deny pleasure seeking for its own sake as a sometimes necessary pastime. Who among us has not hearkened back to days of youth where worries were few and the possibilities of future pleasure extended before us seeming without end? It is a reverie much indulged in, but that indulgence should not, simply due to its ease of diversion, allow us to forget the quieter moments of childhood nor the many more adult pleasures that accompany responsibility.
To desire so intently that moment of pleasure, when, in Ms. O'Reilly's apt analogy, the two cashews, like game siblings, plunge into their fates without also allowing for the later calm, represented so well on the newer packaging, where those same two siblings are at rest after a days gambols with perhaps whispers of secrets passing between them recounting the events of the day past and hopes for days to come, is to favor the brashness of action at the expense of the intimacy in repose. Is it not brashness that so well characterizes much of this current political climate? Is it not a lack of intimacy between fellows, a lack of thoughts and hopes shared that we now suffer from?
No, it is not now a time to be caught up in celebrating past glories. It is a time for more considered reflection, a time of care and planning, not further recklessness.
This of course applies too to the subsuming liquid. Formerly agitated and threatening to spill over as result of the heedless abandon of the exuberant pair, it now shows minimal disruption, with the pair now seeming nestled in a more welcoming environment with threat of danger gone, but pleasure of place not diminished.
Ms. O'Reilly's point on the retreat from realism in the packaging has some merit to be sure, but is this a time to be caught up in trying to quantify differences? A time to demand recounting of our many individual imperfections and the varying distinctions between the genera of allies and kin? Perhaps. I would ne'er deign assert any absolute principle in regards to when best to take account of one's own flaws or group failures, but so too would I caution against o'er focus on such minor variance when greater external conflict threatens. We'll all suffer if the "milk" runs dry and the nuts are left to their own devices.
Unlike Ms. O'Reilly who seems to want desire a return to an earlier time, or simply to retard time's change entirely, I see this new packaging as part of an ongoing saga of Silk Cashew Original, and, through analogy, one regarding all of our lives. There is, to me, no single idyllic moment to which we can return again and again, continuing to find the same pleasure we once had with delight in our dreams of the carefree. We instead store away such moments, such memories for use in later times as a balm to our troubles while seeking to continue the story and find newer, more diverse accommodation for our desires.
It is not avoidance of simple pleasure of the moment that the new Silk Cashew Original packaging proffers, but enrichment of those simple pleasures with further exploration of possibilities. There is no call to forget the old Silk Cashew Original packaging here, rather an offer to supplement that happy memory with another new experience.
posted by gusottertrout at 2:21 AM on June 15, 2017 [19 favorites]
But plant derived products are a perfectly acceptable use of the word
In common parlance yes, but food labelling needs to be accurate. Animal milk and plant milk are completely different products. Both are white, liquid, and do not contain fibre, but otherwise they differ in composition, nutritional value and physical properties. Apples and oranges are actually much closer. The fact that this kind of confusion has been maintained for marketing purposes does not make it right: it is at least misleading, and in some cases dangerously so: there have been several cases of infant hospitalizations or deaths due to parents feeding plant milk to babies.
posted by elgilito at 3:25 AM on June 15, 2017 [8 favorites]
In common parlance yes, but food labelling needs to be accurate. Animal milk and plant milk are completely different products. Both are white, liquid, and do not contain fibre, but otherwise they differ in composition, nutritional value and physical properties. Apples and oranges are actually much closer. The fact that this kind of confusion has been maintained for marketing purposes does not make it right: it is at least misleading, and in some cases dangerously so: there have been several cases of infant hospitalizations or deaths due to parents feeding plant milk to babies.
posted by elgilito at 3:25 AM on June 15, 2017 [8 favorites]
This has become a generational struggle. I miserably failed to make an appealing soy milk for years (mid-90s) but had moved to Denver in '96 in time for Silk to rock my world. And though this 2010 article is the earliest I can source at the moment, I have memories of earlier challenges.
I was big into simulating the tastes and textures of my childhood with ingredients that were not part of the "problem" as I perceived it from two books: Diet for a Small Planet & Diet for a New America.
"Meat", too.
Does anyone recall Oprah backing down from the meat lobbies? I believe it's the only time she ever has. I watched alternative diet markets from about '90 to 2008 and, ten times out of ten, if a product was "too close", its pricing was one and a half to two times that of flesh, or disappeared from the market altogether.
Shelf-space can be a market, but it's also a syndicate.
posted by lazycomputerkids at 4:10 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
I was big into simulating the tastes and textures of my childhood with ingredients that were not part of the "problem" as I perceived it from two books: Diet for a Small Planet & Diet for a New America.
"Meat", too.
Does anyone recall Oprah backing down from the meat lobbies? I believe it's the only time she ever has. I watched alternative diet markets from about '90 to 2008 and, ten times out of ten, if a product was "too close", its pricing was one and a half to two times that of flesh, or disappeared from the market altogether.
Shelf-space can be a market, but it's also a syndicate.
posted by lazycomputerkids at 4:10 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
gusottertrout's comment is everything I wanted and never knew I needed.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 4:13 AM on June 15, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 4:13 AM on June 15, 2017 [2 favorites]
This seems to be, perhaps, a bit astroturfy, given the current kerfuffle on the part of the dairy industry and its allies around the definition of "milk."
posted by Thorzdad at 4:46 AM on June 15, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 4:46 AM on June 15, 2017 [2 favorites]
Silk soy milk is laughable. Kikkoman Pearl is where it's at.
posted by 1adam12 at 5:09 AM on June 15, 2017
posted by 1adam12 at 5:09 AM on June 15, 2017
I would not drink something called Cashewjuice.
posted by Brackish at 5:12 AM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Brackish at 5:12 AM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
Cashuice?
posted by Rock Steady at 5:19 AM on June 15, 2017
posted by Rock Steady at 5:19 AM on June 15, 2017
Cashuice?
I'll allow it. Alternatively, we could look at something hipper to get the kids drinking it. Something like "Cashew Me Outside, How Bow Dah"
posted by Brackish at 5:27 AM on June 15, 2017 [5 favorites]
I'll allow it. Alternatively, we could look at something hipper to get the kids drinking it. Something like "Cashew Me Outside, How Bow Dah"
posted by Brackish at 5:27 AM on June 15, 2017 [5 favorites]
The pub down the street from me created a Raspberry Kölsch called, I shit you not, "Kölsch Me Ousside, Howbow Razz?"
posted by Rock Steady at 7:31 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Rock Steady at 7:31 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
> plant derived products are a perfectly acceptable use of the word
YES. Nut milks have been used and referred to as "milk" in English for centuries.
To pick an example at random, here's a 15th c. recipe for capon confit that makes use of "almonde mylke." Here's another that offers "mylk of almondes" as a substitute for "cowe mylk."
There are literally hundreds of examples of this usage from Middle and Early Modern English. It's not some 21st century marketing trick.
posted by a mirror and an encyclopedia at 7:44 AM on June 15, 2017 [7 favorites]
YES. Nut milks have been used and referred to as "milk" in English for centuries.
To pick an example at random, here's a 15th c. recipe for capon confit that makes use of "almonde mylke." Here's another that offers "mylk of almondes" as a substitute for "cowe mylk."
There are literally hundreds of examples of this usage from Middle and Early Modern English. It's not some 21st century marketing trick.
posted by a mirror and an encyclopedia at 7:44 AM on June 15, 2017 [7 favorites]
Metafilter: True quotation wielding pedants
posted by rocketman at 8:19 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by rocketman at 8:19 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
It seems particularly cruel of the article to chastise the downplaying of the cashew's relationship to poison oak for a laugh, and then ignoring the very real consequences of that factoid:
Many of the women who work in the cashew industry have permanent damage to their hands from this corrosive liquid, because factories do not routinely provide gloves. For their pains they earn about 160 rupees for a 10-hour day: £1.70.posted by darksasami at 8:49 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
This was wonderful. Could somebody contact Sally O'Reilly and invite her to join MetaFilter right away?
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:07 AM on June 15, 2017
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:07 AM on June 15, 2017
Cashew juice - from the cashew "apple" - already has a specific meaning (it's popular in Brazil, but apparently also an acquired taste), so Cashuice would just be running headlong into a different area of marketing confusion.
posted by verschollen at 9:24 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by verschollen at 9:24 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
There is, to me, no single idyllic moment to which we can return again and again, continuing to find the same pleasure we once had with delight in our dreams of the carefree. We instead store away such moments, such memories for use in later times as a balm to our troubles while seeking to continue the story and find newer, more diverse accommodation for our desires.
-QFT
I hope to incorporate this message into my daily practice, which of late has spent far too much time looking in the rear-view mirror.
posted by MtDewd at 9:27 AM on June 15, 2017
-QFT
I hope to incorporate this message into my daily practice, which of late has spent far too much time looking in the rear-view mirror.
posted by MtDewd at 9:27 AM on June 15, 2017
"Milk" should be properly labeled as "Bovine glandular secretion meant to nourish calves."
posted by Cookiebastard at 11:34 AM on June 15, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Cookiebastard at 11:34 AM on June 15, 2017 [2 favorites]
The American Academy of Pediatrics and other professional/medical organizations don't recommend anything other than infant formula and breastmilk for infants, including cow's milk, so maybe we need to label ALL the milk and "milk" things? I'm not sure whether we draw the line before or after Malk.
posted by verschollen at 4:02 PM on June 15, 2017
posted by verschollen at 4:02 PM on June 15, 2017
Has anyone yet mentioned the fact that the edible contents of a walnut (and possibly that of other similar items) is referred to as the 'meat.' Should we change that as well? [ I realize that a walnut is the seed of a drupe and not a true nut, but neither is an almond, pecan or pistachio a true, botanical nut.]
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 6:43 PM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 6:43 PM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
Deez motherfuckin nutz
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:56 PM on June 15, 2017
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:56 PM on June 15, 2017
Has anyone yet mentioned the fact that the edible contents of a walnut (and possibly that of other similar items) is referred to as the 'meat.' Should we change that as well?
Yes! We should call it "milk."
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:34 AM on June 16, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yes! We should call it "milk."
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:34 AM on June 16, 2017 [1 favorite]
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