The U.S. Milk Business Is in 'Crisis'

[Calliegirl]

Good news.

In an age of vitamin waters and energy drinks, the decadeslong decline in U.S. milk consumption has accelerated, worrying dairy farmers, milk processors and grocery chains.
The industry "is coming to recognize this as a crisis," says Tom Gallagher, CEO of Dairy Management Inc., a farmer-funded trade group that promotes milk products. "We cannot simply assume that we will always have a market."
Per-capita U.S. milk consumption, which peaked around World War II, has fallen almost 30% since 1975, even as sales of yogurt, cheese and other dairy products have risen, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics. The reasons include the rise in popularity of bottled waters and the concern of some consumers that milk is high in calories.
Another factor, according to the USDA, is that children, who tend to be heavy milk drinkers, account for a smaller share of the U.S. population than they once did...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-milk-business-crisis-051600862.html

 

[AeryFairy]

 

[Second Summer]

[...] worrying dairy farmers, milk processors and grocery chains.

I can see how dairy farmers and milk processors are worried, but I don't quite see how grocery chains would be worried. I'd think they would be quite used to changing customer demands. If that article were on Wikipedia, I'd add a little "citation needed" tag next to "grocery chains"

 

[Moll Flanders]

^ I nearly posted the same thing, grocery owners will just find another product to replace dairy milk.

I wish people would buy reusable water bottles and just fill up at their tap rather than buying bottled water.

 

[Wolfie]

Awesome news.

The water in my city tastes like crap. I drink bottled water when I bother to drink water.

 

[ledboots]

^ I nearly posted the same thing, grocery owners will just find another product to replace dairy milk.

I wish people would buy reusable water bottles and just fill up at their tap rather than buying bottled water.

No matter what filter I've tried, the tap water here is vile. I can't afford reverse osmosis, though that might make it drinkable. It is still warm from the tap though. Blech.

 

[Wolfie]

Reverse osmosis is supposed to be really good, but a filter is last on the long list of things I'd like but can't afford.

 

[ledboots]

Reverse osmosis is supposed to be really good, but a filter is last on the long list of things I'd like but can't afford.

I live in a hot place with a family of exercisers, so we drink far more water than anything else. At this time, I have one of those water coolers like in offices, and my son fills the giant bottles from the grocery store reverse osmosis at 25 cents a gallon. But I do end up with gallon jugs sometimes because we run out. Interestingly, my dog loves the tap water more than the filtered.

 

[thefadedone]

My family has nasty, dirty, smelly well water so they only drink bottled water. They only reuse the gallon jugs but they buy and waste way too many individual water bottles. I wish their water was drinkable. It would save them so much money and be way more convenient.

I find it incredibly pathetic that dairy producers have to resort to attacking plant based milks in their marketing and campaigns. They keep trying to come up with lame ideas on how to prove that cow's milk is "real milk" and non dairy milks are "fake milks". Sad that they have to rely on stupid slogans to try to get consumers to buy their products yet all we have to do is rely on the facts to get people to see the truth about which one is better.

 

[Wolfie]

Interestingly, my dog loves the tap water more than the filtered.

For most dogs, the grosser, the better.

 

[Josh James xVx]

Imagine those shelves lined with rice, almond, soy and all varieties of motherless milks instead.

 

[ledboots]

If the US goes over the "fiscal cliff", apparently dairy subsidies are going over it as well.

Alarm about an arcane provision that could send U.S. milk prices at the grocery store soaring, hurting millions of American households, has spurred calls for last-minute action on farm legislation that has been languishing for months.Congressional negotiators on a new five-year farm bill are deadlocked on the size of potential cuts in food stamps for the poor, the largest U.S. anti-hunger program, and on reductions in crop subsidies to farmers.But it is the dairy element, and the threat of retail milk prices jumping to $6 or $8 a gallon from the current average of closer to $3.60, that has triggered urgent calls for action."The nation, including Vermont dairy farmers, incredibly enough now are on the verge of plunging over the dairy cliff," Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, from the New England state known for its cheese and ice cream production, said on Friday.Without legislative action by year-end, U.S. farm policy would revert on Jan. 1 to the provisions of the last "permanent" farm bill, the Agriculture Act of 1949.Under that Truman-era legislation the government would be bound to offer so-called "parity pricing" for fluid milk that, once adjusted for inflation, would be far above current levels.Although that seems like a windfall for the 65,000 dairy farmers in the United States, it would likely trigger a chain reaction in which milk was sold to the government rather than into their typical marketing chains, pushing down marketed supplies and pushing up prices to consumers.At some point milk distributors and dairy users, including manufacturers of butter, cheese, yogurt and other products, could replace domestic supplies with imports from countries like New Zealand.Leahy conjured an image of USDA officials "dusting off old paper files and mimeographed notes from the 1940s" to prepare to turn back the policy clock."Whatever we are legally obligated to do, we will do," USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said this week."The best outcome would be for Congress to do its job, in the remaining time of this year, to pass a five-year bill. And to make it a priority. The worst outcome would be for us to continue to see Congress do nothing, and for permanent law to come into effect," Vilsack said.The Senate passed a new five-year farm bill in June, and the House Agriculture Committee passed a version in July, which has not made it to a vote by the full House. The previous farm bill expired Sept. 30.Senator Debbie Stabenow, Senate Agriculture Committee chairwoman, lashed out at Republicans in the House of Representatives for inaction."Fiscal cliff tax increases would hit middle class families' pocketbooks, but so would paying six or seven dollars for a gallon of milk," Stabenow said in an emailed statement.House Speaker John Boehner has said he does not want a "1,000 page farm bill" bundled into any proposed solution to the fiscal cliff, a round of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes that could kick in after Jan. 1."We need to tell the speaker that it's not a thousand-page bill. It's a bill that can be easily linked to, and provide savings for, any fiscal cliff solution," Vilsack said.A one-year extension of the current, expired farm bill would be another option, albeit one that Vilsack has said he does not support. Stop-gap legislation specifically aimed at the dairy provisions would be another option.TAXPAYERS TO BE MILKEDAdding dairy insult to injury, economists at USDA estimate that the implementation of permanent law for dairy would cost at least $12 billion to $15 billion a year.By contrast, the Senate version of the farm bill would save an estimated $23 billion over five years, and the stalled House version some $35 billion.Chris Galen, spokesman for the trade group National Milk Producers Federation, said that dairy farmers have been pleading with Washington to deal with the lack of a farm bill.Absent a bill, "prices will go up dramatically on milk, cheese, butter and milk powder - and they're not sustainable prices. It might be good for farmers in the short run, but it's going to be bad for everyone in the long-term," Galen said.But Kathy Ozer of the National Family Farm Coalition said that "parity pricing" by itself would not produce the kinds of milk price spikes being foreshadowed."We argue that it's the processors and those in the middle of the [supply chain] that would be driving up the prices for the consumers and taking the massive profits - not the farmers," said Ozer, executive director of the group, which represents small farms and rural groups.Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/governme...l-cliff-dairy-prices-may-spike/#ixzz2FoVCz9bz

 

[Kitties]

I wish people would buy reusable water bottles and just fill up at their tap rather than buying bottled water.

Agreed. Our towns water doesn't taste the best but I fill my liter stainless bottle and take it to work every day. It's water.

The decreased milk consumption is good news. Saw lots and lots of cheese in people's carts today at Trader Joes however.

 

[Josh James xVx]

Isn't it supposedly very unhealthy to reuse water bottles repeatedly? Don't carcinogens build up in them? Glass bottles would be safer.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

Isn't it supposedly very unhealthy to reuse water bottles repeatedly? Don't carcinogens build up in them? Glass bottles would be safer.

When the flimsy bottles get hot (like if they're sitting in a car on a warm day) they can release chemicals into the water. I used to reuse those bottles all the time, but stopped after learning that.

I don't mind the taste of the tap water here, though I do use a filter on the faucet. When I want to take water with me, I fill up an aluminum bottle.

 

[Werewolf Girl]

 

[Kitties]

Isn't it supposedly very unhealthy to reuse water bottles repeatedly? Don't carcinogens build up in them? Glass bottles would be safer.

That's my understanding with the plastic. I used to use an old glass juice bottle but was always waiting to drop it! So I finally invested in a stainless steel one which I have dropped a few times.

 

[Josh James xVx]

So you carry a flask around?

 

[ledboots]

So you carry a flask around?

If you put a little Jack Daniels in there, it nullifies all germs, toxins, etc.

 

[Kitties]

LOL with the stress work causes me these days, I'm surprised I don't need a few drops of something to get through! It's just a plain liter bottle though.