Fact Sheets: Milk

Despite what the picture on the package suggests, the dairy products you buy probably don’t come from a local dairy farm that supplies a local processing plant. Over the last 20 years, the dairy industry has transformed from a local network of farms and processors to mega-dairies that sell their milk to a tiny number of corporate-style milk cooperatives and processing companies. Consolidation in the dairy industry has increased the size and power that large dairy cooperatives, fluid milk processors and dairy product manufacturers exert over dairy farms. There are now fewer companies at each step of the dairy supply chain and they are coordinated into powerful corporate alliances. These larger market players increasingly source their milk from industrial mega-dairies. But this increased scale and intensified production by farms, processors and manufacturers has not benefited farmers or consumers — farmers receive lower prices for their milk and consumers pay more at the grocery store.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated that over 40 percent of large dairy operations in the United States inject their cows with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), a synthetic hormone that induces cows to produce more milk. The use of rBGH remains controversial and was not approved in Canada, Japan or the European Union because of negative effects on animal health. There are also concerns that the use of rBGH may be linked to cancer in humans.

You’re not getting what you pay for in the dairy aisle these days. While shoppers are led to believe that the milk they purchase comes from tranquil pastures, where farmers watch over happy milk cows grazing on green fields, the reality is not so idyllic. Today‚ dairy industry doesn’t work for consumers, who pay more than ever at the grocery store, or for small and mid-sized family farmers, who aren’t paid enough for the milk they produce to break even. It seems like everyone is losing, except for the processors and retailers who skim off all the cream.