Nonetheless, as dairy consumption and manufacturing proceed to develop, so too does the trade’s environmental footprint. In 2019, the EPA estimated that US dairy cattle emitted 1,729,000 tons of methane annually, air pollution roughly equal to 11.5 million gasoline-powered automobiles being pushed over the identical interval. A United Nations report discovered that the dairy sector’s world greenhouse fuel emissions rose by 18 p.c between 2005 and 2015.
In the meantime, it’s not fully clear that each one these efforts are serving to the common dairy farmer. The variety of US dairy farms has fallen by three quarters prior to now 30 years, as farmers’ prices rise and milk costs fluctuate. Many small and midsize dairy farms have been pushed out of enterprise and farmers’ internet returns fall under zero 12 months after 12 months. In 2000, farms with greater than 2,000 cattle produced lower than 10 p.c of milk, however by 2016 farms of this dimension have been answerable for greater than 30 p.c of US manufacturing. The diverging pattern traces have prompted some farmers to query whether or not the concentrate on market development above all else—which has been accompanied by rising local weather air pollution and the collapse of small dairy herds—remains to be the perfect coverage.
Ever since Congress handed the Dairy Act within the Eighties, farmers have been required to pay 15 cents per hundred-weight of milk (equal to rather less than 12 gallons) towards trade promotion packages overseen by the US Division of Agriculture, or USDA. Ten cents is shipped to native promotion entities, and the remaining 5 cents go to the nationwide Dairy Board, which promotes all dairy merchandise. (Eggs have their very own $20 million program.) Farmer contributions to the nationwide program totaled $124.5 million in 2021.
The Dairy Board in flip sends cash to Dairy Administration. Milk processors work below an analogous construction, paying their very own assessments to the Fluid Milk Board, which works completely on selling a class that features milk, flavored milk, buttermilk, and eggnog. The Fluid Milk Board acquired $82.4 million in processor charges in 2021. Its advertising and marketing arm known as MilkPEP.
In an emailed assertion, a Dairy Administration spokesperson informed Grist that “all dairy analysis, promotion content material and data not solely complies with all rules and requirements, but additionally seeks to assist customers make knowledgeable choices concerning the meals they select for themselves and their households, together with nutritious, sustainably produced dairy.”
The monetary construction of those efforts is difficult, however the finish result’s that these packages, that are recognized to farmers as “checkoffs,” carry in additional than $200 million annually within the dairy trade alone. Consequently, the trade takes care to notice its accomplishments. As an example, within the first eight years the checkoff partnered with Domino’s Pizza, the common retailer elevated its cheese use by 43 p.c.
Different promotional efforts, nevertheless, have amounted to slickly-produced flops. Final 12 months, the Fluid Milk Board employed actor Aubrey Plaza to hawk “wooden milk” in an obvious effort to lampoon plant-based milk options, which resulted in a proper grievance filed by a bunch of physicians who advocate for plant-based diets. One other effort concerned a board-funded web site that includes Queen Latifah, which was dedicated to combating the seemingly fictional phenomenon of “milk shaming.”