Tag: milk sales

Milk-Drinking is Having a Moment

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

The good news keeps coming for fluid milk.

According to year-end USDA data, fluid milk consumption, in a slow decline for the past five decades, increased in 2024. The 0.6% increase to 42.98 billion pounds is the first year-over-year gain since 2009. And unlike that year, it didn’t happen because low prices and a bad dairy economy prompted grocery stores to practically give it away. Milk prices are relatively high these days, and people are drinking more milk because… well, because they want to.

And the story isn’t just that they’re drinking more milk. It’s also about why they’re drinking milk, as well as what kind of milk they’re drinking.

Source: USDA. Note: Whole milk total includes flavored varieties. Flavored Reduced-Fat includes 2%, 1% and skim. Other Milk includes buttermilk. All categories include both conventional and organic milk.

Driving much consumer interest in real milk consumption is the awareness that it’s a protein powerhouse. And that’s only part of the unique package of essential nutrients milk has to offer that leaves over-engineered, nutritionally inferior plant-based substitutes in the dust. (Not to mention their many weird ingredients.)

Fluid milk’s gains are built on whole milk, also known as “the milk that tastes most like milk.” Not to begrudge lower-fat varieties — dairy farmers support whatever milk you choose, as long as it’s actual milk and not one of the misnamed beverages — but whole milk’s popularity shows just how intrinsically tasty dairy is, as well as how much more popular milk could be if it, say, were offered on a school lunch menu to children who drink it at home.

The increase also accentuates the lie of the plant-based imposters, which fell in sales for the third straight year. After years of their misinformation, painting their gains as inevitable, milk isn’t just getting back its market share — it’s adding to its already overwhelming preference in the marketplace. And no amount of over-processing of nut-of-the-moment re-engineering is going to change that.

And with that, it’s time for government policy to match consumer reality. The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act (which you can support here) would bring whole and 2% back to schools, giving schoolkids access to the same popular, healthy varieties they drink at home. And FDA’s enforcement of its own rules on milk’s Standard of Identity (or congressional passage of the Dairy PRIDE Act), would do a lot to clear up consumer confusion over nutrition in the marketplace.

Milk has a lot of momentum heading into the year — which, really, just puts it in the same position as the rest of dairy, the popularity of which remains the highest it’s been since the 1950s. So really — literally — raise a glass to this today. Because the number of glasses being raised is only growing.

 

Dairy’s 2020 Gains Were Steady in a Year That Was Anything But

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

We’ll spare you the long story of how 2020 was difficult for everyone – assuming you aren’t a time-traveler or a visitor from outer space, you already know it. And if you follow this column, you’ll know that consumers turned to dairy in difficult times, from baking at home to stocking up on fluid milk in the COVID-19 pandemic’s earliest days.

But the final consumption data for 2020 is now in, and the spreadsheet confirms what we already knew in our hearts: For the third consecutive year, U.S. per-capita dairy consumption increased, to 655 pounds per person from 653 pounds in 2019, showing a resilience in dairy that reflects that of those who relied on it.

No eye-poppers in this year’s report. A small uptick in yogurt, a gain in butter as it marches back to 1960’s-level consumption, increased buying of both full-fat and lower-fat ice cream – because what’s a ­­­lockdown without ice cream? And fluid milk consumption held steady, belying the haters who always use receding prominence  as fake evidence of the “death of dairy” even as gains among other dairy products more than outpace any fluid losses.

In the end, “steady” is ­­­what dairy’s been all about. At a time when everything from public health to supply chains have been in upheaval, consumers can count on dairy – for quality, for nutrition, for affordability, and for care in its creation.

2020 is over, and 2021 hasn’t been a picnic either. But we do know – and the data does show – what consumers have counted on throughout. Dairy farmers are proud to provide products that keep the country nourished. They will continue to meet that steadily growing need until current challenges have passed – and far, far beyond.