No. 1 Milk Company Declares Bankruptcy Amid Drop In Demand

[LucyL]

Dean Foods files Chapter 11

A few interesting bits - "Dean Foods blamed a decades long drop in milk consumption that has seen people turn to alternatives like soda, juice and almond milk." ...

"Since 1975, the amount of liquid milk consumed per capita in the U.S. has tumbled more than 40%. Americans drank around 24 gallons a year in 1996, according to government data. That dropped to 17 gallons in 2018."

Interesting that milk consumption has been decreasing since 1975, need to see the correlative graph with the subsequent rise in cancers, autoimmune diseases etc etc.

"Stephenson said Dean was also slow to innovate. He cited growing sales of Fairlife milk, a Coca-Cola Co. brand that is lower in lactose and higher in protein."

On a personal note I grabbed a bottle of Fairlife in the airport recently, and it was the MOST disgusting thing I've tasted in a long time. I ditched the (overpriced) bottle. The ingredients included natural flavorings*. I wondered why on earth you would need that for ultra-filtered milk... I wonder now if the purpose is to make it taste like almond or soy or oat or other "milk".

Edited to add * - I looked up the ingredients online, and the fairlife website says nothing about natural flavorings. I'm going on memory of my experience, I should have taken a photo .

 

[yerrag]

I don't understand why I don't see US milk in the Philippines. There is locally produced fresh milk which costs about $2/liter ($7.20/gal). The UHT milk in 1-ltr. cartons cost about $$1.50/ltr. They're imported from Denmark, Australia, France, and New Zealand mostly. I wonder why no US milk gets here.

People aren't avoiding milk here. If milk is priced as low as it is in the US, more would be bought. People here don't see milk as something to be avoided or replaced with "more healthy" alternatives.

What are the reasons milk don't sell well in the US? If Americans don't care for milk, why don't the US export their milk to the rest of the world, who are slow to catch on to the propaganda that milk is bad?

 

[LucyL]

Global Warming.
j/k, maybe ;-) Here's a market report from early 2019, apparently everybody has good milk production right now, which means the increase in worldwide CO2 is being beneficial? Makes the export market tough.

 

[ecstatichamster]

dairy farms are going bankrupt at an alarming rate like NEVER before.

Too much milk: Two nations’ travails with dairy policy

 

[tankasnowgod]

"Since 1975, the amount of liquid milk consumed per capita in the U.S. has tumbled more than 40%. Americans drank around 24 gallons a year in 1996, according to government data. That dropped to 17 gallons in 2018."

Interesting that milk consumption has been decreasing since 1975, need to see the correlative graph with the subsequent rise in cancers, autoimmune diseases etc etc.

"Stephenson said Dean was also slow to innovate. He cited growing sales of Fairlife milk, a Coca-Cola Co. brand that is lower in lactose and higher in protein."

On a personal note I grabbed a bottle of Fairlife in the airport recently, and it was the MOST disgusting thing I've tasted in a long time. I ditched the (overpriced) bottle. The ingredients included natural flavorings*. I wondered why on earth you would need that for ultra-filtered milk... I wonder now if the purpose is to make it taste like almond or soy or oat or other "milk".

It's not just milk consumption that dropped, but also meat and eggs, along with anything that contained cholesterol or more of the saturated fats, like tropical oils. I think consumption of fruit and vegetables has largely been flat. 1975 is shortly after the Anti-Saturated Fat/Cholesterol "Guidelines" were put out by the Federal Government, USDA I believe. This had to be a major factor, some by mere suggestion, some by force.

These foods have largely been replaced by processed foods, containing a lot of high PUFA oils and substances that may have been truly novel additions to diet (the gums, carageenen, and other things).

I agree with the assessment of Fairlife. It tatsted so thin, like a poorly mixed protein shake. Nothing like any glass of milk I've ever had, not even skim.

 

[postman]

I don't understand why I don't see US milk in the Philippines. There is locally produced fresh milk which costs about $2/liter ($7.20/gal). The UHT milk in 1-ltr. cartons cost about $$1.50/ltr. They're imported from Denmark, Australia, France, and New Zealand mostly. I wonder why no US milk gets here.

People aren't avoiding milk here. If milk is priced as low as it is in the US, more would be bought. People here don't see milk as something to be avoided or replaced with "more healthy" alternatives.

What are the reasons milk don't sell well in the US? If Americans don't care for milk, why don't the US export their milk to the rest of the world, who are slow to catch on to the propaganda that milk is bad?

American food has a bad reputation, poor food standards and all kinds of GMOs and poisons, maybe that's why people in the Philippines choose European milk.

 

[tara]

They're imported from Denmark, Australia, France, and New Zealand mostly.

I would expect reasonably high-quality milk from these countries. As a consumer, would you choose milk from the US in preference?

 

[Lone Bunman]

16 gallons a year? Weak.

 

[yerrag]

It's not just milk consumption that dropped, but also meat and eggs, along with anything that contained cholesterol or more of the saturated fats, like tropical oils. I think consumption of fruit and vegetables has largely been flat. 1975 is shortly after the Anti-Saturated Fat/Cholesterol "Guidelines" were put out by the Federal Government, USDA I believe. This had to be a major factor, some by mere suggestion, some by force.

These foods have largely been replaced by processed foods, containing a lot of high PUFA oils and substances that may have been truly novel additions to diet (the gums, carageenen, and other things).

I agree with the assessment of Fairlife. It tatsted so thin, like a poorly mixed protein shake. Nothing like any glass of milk I've ever had, not even skim.

Yes, and that's part and parcel of the transformation of the US - generally by design dumbing down the population en masse by public education and by the tearing down of institutional integrity. In its place is an ethos based on very flimsy if not outright false underpinnings. One of the many effects is the weakening of our biology. While Ray Peat talks about how good milk is, the rest of the so-called experts and authorities talk the credulous population into its alternatives such as rice milk, almond milk, and soya milk. In the same way that beef tallow was replaced by PUFA oils in McDonald's fries, and in how PUFA oils have largely replaced coconut oil and butter and animal fats for cooking. Doctors no longer heal, they sell drugs for legalized drug monopolies.

The US is the most noteworthy example of a country that's been so fundamentally transformed by mass propaganda, overt and covert, with the use of all its institutions - schools, universities, broadcast and print media, Hollywood, churches, medical associations, banks, and internet monopolies. So effectively and efficiently was this done that the best educated are now effectively the most programmed to follow the dictates of the elite's false programming. Take the spectacle of Hillary's electoral loss and see the institutional weight behind Hillary being turned over by the relative purity of thought of the less educated masses. See how this false narrative of our world is slowly breathing its last gasp as the elites resist through machination the overturning of their falsehood - in media, in Congress, in the state agencies.

It would be a nice and desired ending. The rest of the world would be next if the falsehood were to swallow it up. Imagine other countries facing the same crisis in health care and in health insurance by the US export of this oppressive, malicious, deceptive, and onerous system of health care? Imagine the US state department expanding the regime change wars of the mideast to other regions, as its insatiable appetite for conflict grows. Already it has brought together Israel and Saudi Arabia and itself to become the antithesis to the peace that their religions seek - Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Ironically, it's the countries with less claim to religion that stand in their way - China and Russia.

The world is ripe for a change. Trump or Tulsi - it doesn't matter. The US is now run by the remnants of the old order, the order they US vanquished in its fight for independence. But the old order has slowly crept back and its stench now dominates the US way of life. The state department and the intelligence agencies are the embodiment of the vile spirit of the Dulles brothers, the chief architects of the middle east conflicts where peace was never an option. The world is no longer a world of empires and colonies, but for them the use of economic subjugation is more convenient and just as effective.

Milk will regain its lofty position among foods once the falsehood the world lives on is finally rejected.

 

[yerrag]

American food has a bad reputation, poor food standards and all kinds of GMOs and poisons, maybe that's why people in the Philippines choose European milk.

That's true, but I don't think the importers nor our carbon copy of the US FDA cares about that, being that the Philippines is a kowtowing vassal state of the US. But it's mostly because the US is uncompetitive in its export structure. For too long it has relied on the domestic market the export market is neglected. It has many years to adjust to this reality, but it didn't. The Midwest doesn't have efficient transportation systems to make its product reach its shores to make milk export competitive with the other countries.

I would expect reasonably high-quality milk from these countries. As a consumer, would you choose milk from the US in preference?

No, but I'm not so sure that the agricultural practices of the other countries are any better.

 

[soul_rebel]

Yesterday in the small organic market near my house, I noticed two people buy almond milk, while I bought cows milk.

It does seem like milk consumption has declined. I do think people have a hard time digesting dairy properly.

 

[Dave Clark]

If cow's milk consumption is down, in my opinion it is simply because of the available options that are attractive to people, if for no other reason, curiosity. There's now readily available goat milk, rice, soy, almond, coconut, macadamia, hazelnut, cashew, etc., etc. found in not only health food stores, but in commercial grocery stores here in the states. I personally buy raw, organic, grass-fed milk from a farmer, but I don't think the masses of people are that scrutinizing of the milk quality, I think the availability of aseptic shelf stable packaged milks from these other options are an attractive option (which also caters to the increasing vegetarian population).

 

[Luann]

Are milk prices going to go up as a result?

 

[yerrag]

Articles like these over the years have people running away from milk:

At Long Last, Milk Is Canceled

In general, milk is bad—it tastes bad, it smells bad, and it goes bad easily. There’s a reason white nationalists made milk their mascot (purity, I guess, but also because it sucks, and so do they). Cheese is at least tasty. Ice cream is the ***t, even though it seems poised to kill me. Yogurt is questionable, but I respect other people’s right to enjoy it. But milk is the kind of thing parents (hi Mom!) foist on their unsuspecting children, poisoning their insides and turning the trip to school into a real ******* nightmare. My family didn’t know about lactose intolerance in the early ‘90s, in fairness, but I’m still mad.

An inbred city dweller "never seen a live chicken" culture reading trippy articles like these have them drinking alternatives to milk. But instead, these alternatives mostly have thickeners made of all sorts of gums (locust, bean etc) and carageenan, which are the actual poisons to our insides. Milk goes bad easily? What doesn't go bad that's good for you, idiot? And why link white nationalists to milk? Really stupid pigeon-hole city dweller with no life! Nothing against city dwellers (I live in one) but did you hear about this Berkeley professor who calls rural people 'bad people' while he is oblivious to the fact that he is an urban parasite who just leeches off the produce of rural people. This once again shows how miseducated and programmed these people are, and why milk is the victim of a revinisionist and toxic mindset that's been inculculated into the mainstream culture.

Barstool Sports

 

[yerrag]

But it's certainly true that the milk industry at large shares the blame for its current problems. The use of rGBH hormones and antibiotics in order to boost milk production, and the production of milk that includes millk with pus from mastitis (pasteurized but nonetheless filled with toxins) destroys the wholesome image of milk. The verdict of the market was across the board. The industry is dominated by big agribusiness, and not my small milk producers and mom and pop farms. And so what big agri decides to do, no matter how wrong, the USDA and regulatory agencies blesses.

This creates a situation where small dairy farms are forced to follow the toxic practices of big agri, as to not follow would render them uncompetitive. Not only that, the USDA allows the abovementioned practices (rGBH, antibiotics, pasteurized but pus-contaminated milk). This has put ethical milk producers at a disadvantage, as it is hard for them to compete cost-wise. To differentiate themselves, they would need to spend heavily on marketing or they would just produce for their community, who knows the value of their product.

I remember one milk brand would market in its label that it doesn't use rGBH hormone. It was sued by a larger label that the label implies that rGBH as used by the larger label is harmful, which it argues has yet to be proven. I don't know who won, but chances are that the larger label won. If so, this has a chlling effect on producers who want to differentiate themselves by marketing the higher and safer quality of their milk. They can't bring their message out. Their hands are tied. They have to shut down or stay alive by watering down their standards of quality. With less and less people to tout the true wholesomeness of milk in the industry, the message that milk is not good takes more and more center-stage in the public square. So this is where the milk industry is - thank to big agri conniving with the USDA and bought-for regulatory agencies.

Probably good than Deans Food is bankrupt. They co-opted the organic designation, lowered organic standards so they can call their milk organic, and they didn't raise the quality of milk, but instead is part of the industry move to streamline and be cost-effective, while destroying the quality of milk at the same time. Milk may not enjoy its pre-eminence, but it's still available. Good milk will still be found for people who value it. For those who have moved on to alternatives, let's hope they read the labels so they aren't trading one evil for a bigger one.

p.s. It just occurred to me: Is pasteurized pus-filled milk safe when the bacteria has been killed? Won't there be endotoxins left from it? Are we intoxicating ourselves with endotoxins drinking industrial milk? Yet Ray Peat says the usual pasterurized milk is safe, as he drinks it. Wonder if this is something worth revisiting with Peat.

 

[Kratos]

All US cow milk gives me stomach pain and gets me sick including a2 cow milk. Goat milk is amazing and I have no problems with it.

 

[yerrag]

Deleted

 

[yerrag]

All US cow milk gives me stomach pain and gets me sick including a2 cow milk. Goat milk is amazing and I have no problems with it.

Maybe it's because big agri found the goat milk market too tiny for it to want to tap and exploit and game.

 

[pauljacob]

I buy a Gallon of Milk every week, but I don't drink it. I turn it into Yogurt and eat that.

 

[akgrrrl]

Articles like these over the years have people running away from milk:

At Long Last, Milk Is Canceled

In general, milk is bad—it tastes bad, it smells bad, and it goes bad easily. There’s a reason white nationalists made milk their mascot (purity, I guess, but also because it sucks, and so do they). Cheese is at least tasty. Ice cream is the ***t, even though it seems poised to kill me. Yogurt is questionable, but I respect other people’s right to enjoy it. But milk is the kind of thing parents (hi Mom!) foist on their unsuspecting children, poisoning their insides and turning the trip to school into a real ******* nightmare. My family didn’t know about lactose intolerance in the early ‘90s, in fairness, but I’m still mad.

An inbred city dweller "never seen a live chicken" culture reading trippy articles like these have them drinking alternatives to milk. But instead, these alternatives mostly have thickeners made of all sorts of gums (locust, bean etc) and carageenan, which are the actual poisons to our insides. Milk goes bad easily? What doesn't go bad that's good for you, idiot? And why link white nationalists to milk? Really stupid pigeon-hole city dweller with no life! Nothing against city dwellers (I live in one) but did you hear about this Berkeley professor who calls rural people 'bad people' while he is oblivious to the fact that he is an urban parasite who just leeches off the produce of rural people. This once again shows how miseducated and programmed these people are, and why milk is the victim of a revinisionist and toxic mindset that's been inculculated into the mainstream culture.

Barstool Sports

Anytime I see "natural flavoring" in dairy or like, icecream I put it down. Go to www fda.gov/allowable contaminants to know chemists make gallons of imitation vanilla from the expressed anal gland of the beaver. Beaver butt is natural don't you know?