Here’s the good news: Dairy milk consumption—horrible for cows on dairies, human health, and the environment alike—is on the decline. A perfect storm of lessening consumer
demand, trade squabbles, and scaled-back dairy purchasing worldwide has left dairy products piling up—especially in the
United States.
The U.S. currently has more than 800 million pounds of excess American cheese and 272
million pounds of excess butter, the USDA calculates. Dairy factory farmers are
forcing cows to produce so much that millions of pounds of excess milk are
simply dumped onto fields. According to
MarketWatch, “In
the Midwest and Northeast, nearly 78 million gallons of milk have been dumped
so far this year, up 86% from the same period last year.
The bad
news? Despite all this milk going to waste because nobody wants it, the U.S.
dairy industry is still heavily subsidized by the government—and receiving
taxpayer bailouts as a result. Lawmakers lobbied by the dairy industry are
asking the USDA to continue using taxpayer money to buy excess cheese. Last
year, the agency spent $20 million to do so and this year has already spent all the authorized funds.
Now, according to a USDA spokesperson, a new request for yet more taxpayer
money to be spent subsidizing this failing, cruel, and unhealthy industry is
being considered.
Gee, if
only there were some way to stop
forcing cows to produce an unnatural and inhumane quantity of milk…
“You
can’t turn the cows off,” says Ken Nobis, president of a dairy cooperative
in Michigan. Actually, you can. You allow them to naturally live out their
lives and lactate only for their babies. As the dairy industry stands now, cows are kept captive, pregnant, and lactating against their will at a nearly
nonstop rate for their entire shortened lives. There’s certainly nothing
natural about this and nothing that can’t be “turned off.
Instead of adjusting to consumers’ demands for healthier plant-based milk alternatives, the dairy industry is depending on bailouts from taxpayers—many of whom are sick of and made literally sick by their products. The times are changing: Consumers are realizing that they don’t need dairy to be healthy and happy, that in fact they’re better off without it. It’s time for the USDA to get with the times, stand up to the dairy lobby, and protect the health of the American people. It’s time for the USDA to stop subsidizing animal cruelty.
Instead
of protecting a food group that’s been proven to increase
Americans’ risk of cancer, Parkinson’s disease,
digestive disorders, and a whole other host of health problems, what if our
government helped make vegetables, fruits, and nuts more available in schools
and more affordable in food deserts nationwide? What if the government used
that same money to help America’s dairy farmers—many of whom may want a more humane and
sustainable source of income—transition to plant-based farming
that has a less disastrous
environmental impact? Now that would be a decision
in the best interest of the American people.
In the
meantime, you can protest USDA dairy subsidies (and meat subsidies, for that
matter) by contacting your
representative—and
by joining the millions of people who are taking a stand for animals, the environment, and their
health by transitioning to a plant-based
diet.