Milk-ageddon is here, and it’s the end of dairy as we know it Friendly’s is frowning. The Land O’Lakes are drying up. TruMoo is a sad, chocolate-flavored lie. This week, we all have reason to cry over spilt milk: Dean Foods, America’s largest milk producer, filed for bankruptcy. So, how did the dairy dynasty dry up? It’s a case of cultural lactose intolerance: Last year, the average American consumed 146 pounds of milk –– 39% less than the average American consumed in 1975, and the lowest amount ever recorded since the US Department of Agriculture began monitoring milk mustaches. Dean Foods, which still operates 60 dairy processing facilities in 29 states, was udderly overwhelmed by such sour business conditions. The company’s sales have fallen 38% in the past decade despite Dean’s efforts to cut costs. So Dean Foods –– which owns and operates brands like Friendly’s ice cream and Dairy Pure milk that are beloved by lactose lovers everywhere ––filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to reorganize its debt, satisfy pension obligations, and keep the lights on. Now, Dean Foods is looking for a buyer According to a statement, Dean is in conversations with the Dairy Farmers of America, a massive milk marketing cooperative. The company secured $850m in funding to keep the milk moving during the sale process. In the meantime, we hope you like oat milk: Oat milk sales, while much smaller by total volume, increased 636% last year while sales of all types of cow’s milk (1%, 2%, skim, fat-free) declined.
The argument can be made that milk (and milk products) is not for adult consumption. The more you go to the East the more lactose intolerance raises. In Japan: "The daily per capita consumption of milk is about 105g, roughly one third of the daily per capita consumption in England and Denmark, and less than one-half of that in the U.S. and Australia. Moreover, the daily per capita consumption of butter, a major dairy product in Japan, is 2g, about one fifth of that in England, and about one twelfth of that in France, the country with the highest rate of butter consumption. (It typically takes about 5-10g of butter to butter one slice of toast.) Finally, per-capita cheese consumption is about one fifth of that in England and about one thirteenth of that in France."
All the millennials drinking their oat milk and soy. Yep. That's the reason. Wonder what other old treats will be going away soon...
Plant based alternatives are becoming better and more available every year. I think this is going to be a permanent shift, especially if the alternatives become cheaper than their animal based equivalents.
It can't be made. Do you have an evidence this is true? Asians in particular start out with the same amount of lactase as everyone else but are genetically predisposed to producing less of it as they grow older. North Europeans are the exact opposite, maintaining their lactase supply indefinitely. Unsurprisingly milk consumption is correlated to higher bone strength in adults. More over it's fairly nutritious. It would make no sense that is "not for adults" when it still is one of the single best sources of fast calories and fat on the planet.
I’ve also heard and read about this, but I’m surprised no one Googled countries with highest life expectancy vs largest milk consumption. Both lists have these countries in the top 30 (highest life expectancy and largest milk consumption): - Switzerland - Ireland - Finland - Australia - Austria - Spain - Iceland - Israel - Sweden - France - Canada - Norway - New Zealand - United Kingdom - Denmark - Cyprus Basically more than half of countries cross both lists of top 30. (sources: https://www.statista.com/statistics/535806/consumption-of-fluid-milk-per-capita-worldwide-country/ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy )
Nature? Name another adult mammal that consumes milk. Of course milk is highly nutritious and helps bone strength, that is why nature intended it for puppies and other baby animals. Most adults can't digest milk: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/WellnessNews/story?id=8450036 "If you're American or European it's hard to realize this, but being able to digest milk as an adult is one weird genetic adaptation. It's not normal. Somewhat less than 40% of people in the world retain the ability to digest lactose after childhood. The numbers are often given as close to 0% of Native Americans, 5% of Asians, 25% of African and Caribbean peoples, 50% of Mediterranean peoples and 90% of northern Europeans. Sweden has one of the world's highest percentages of lactase tolerant people. Being able to digest milk is so strange that scientists say we shouldn't really call lactose intolerance a disease, because that presumes it's abnormal. Instead, they call it lactase persistence, indicating what's really weird is the ability to continue to drink milk."
Oh boy, the old correlation, causation mistake.... OK a quick counter example is Japan vs. US, as I already mentioned in my post earlier. Japan has one of the highest life expectancy yet their milk product consumption is less than 1/3rd of the American people. One could think the exact opposite, more milk drinking, less life expectancy.
Why humans have evolved to drink milk https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190218-when-did-humans-start-drinking-cows-milk ...Dairy decline? If anything, the news over the last few years offers the opposite impression: that people are abandoning milk. In November 2018, the Guardian published a story headlined “How we fell out of love with milk”, describing the meteoric rise of the companies selling oat and nut milks, and suggesting that traditional milk is facing a major battle. But the statistics tell a different story. According to the 2018 report of the IFCN Dairy Research Network, global milk production has increased every year since 1998 in response to growing demand. In 2017, 864 million tonnes of milk were produced worldwide. This shows no sign of slowing down: the IFCN expects milk demand to rise 35% by 2030 to 1,168 million tonnes. (Read more about how milk became a staple food in industrialised societies). Still, this masks some more localised trends. A 2010 study of food consumption found that in the US milk consumption has fallen over the last few decades – although it was replaced with fizzy drinks, not almond milk. This fall was balanced by growing demand in developing countries, especially in Asia – something the IFCN has also noted. Meanwhile, a 2015 study of people’s drinking habits in 187 countries found that milk drinking was more common in older people, which does suggest that it is less popular with the young – although this says nothing about young people’s consumption of milk products like yoghurt...