I don’t like food waste. I’ve written about it time and again, and have been a big advocate against it for years. So when I read this story, my heart jumped. Over 43 million gallons of milk have been dumped. On purpose. Americans can’t consume the amount of milk being produced, so it is being wasted.
Dairy farmers in the United States have dumped more than 43 million gallons of milk between January and August of 2016. They’ve poured the milk into fields, manure lagoons, animal feeds, or down the drain at processing plants. Yikes. So. Much. Waste. It’s more than has been wasted in almost 2 decades.
The issue began 2 years ago when farmers responded to a shortage and started increasing production. Well, now that is now catching up with them because we aren’t drinking the quantity of dairy being produced. Hence the waste. But it’s also driving down prices to the point that farmers are suffering. Their profits are so low, many can’t even afford to transport their milk to market.
While some of it is being donated, most of it is just being dumped. So what’s the solution? They aren’t sure. But I’m sick about this! Maybe we should all up the amount of butter, cheese and cold cereal we are consuming?!
Moo,
~Mavis
Rebecca Frederick says
That is horrible. I thankfully don’t have that issue in my house. We grocery shop every two weeks and buy 10-14 gallons each shop and trust me, it is all consumed by the family (consisting of two very tall boys aside from my husband and myself).
Jenny Young says
Oh my goodness! My son would have loved you. When he was a teen I bought two gallons a week & told him it HAD to last a week to stay in our budget. One day he moaned that he wished he could just drink all the milk he wanted without someone telling him we would run out. So for Christmas that year we gave him milk. 🙂
Suzanne says
I wonder why prices are still so high if there is so much extra supply. I know my family would drink more milk and eat more cheese if I would let them, but with prices so high I don’t let them have free reign.
Emily K says
Milk is from an industry that has perfectly competitive firms; that is, each individual firm (or dairy producer) has no power over the price of the goods they produce. In the milk industry, no single producer or consumer has any control over the price or quantity of milk.
Most likely, the prices do not drop because the producers are currently selling milk at market price, and a price drop would mean a reduction in income for the producers to the point where their marginal costs are higher than profits.
Maria says
Why isn’t it being donated to needy families rather than being dumped? This is crazy! Milk is the #1 requested item on a FB group I follow for families needing help with food. Most of these families have had a sudden financial expense, don’t qualify for assistance, and turn to each other for help through tight times. It makes me sick to see so much waste knowing that so many people could really use it!
Angela says
I vote that instead of increasing our milk consumption, we let the calves drink the milk that their mom made for them. Especially if we are just wasting it!
Tammy says
Angela! This is exactly my thought. We visited a large dairy with a homeschool group and one of the things another mom pointed out to me were the large pallets of formula they feed the calves! Seriously, give it to the calves!
Ginger says
YES!!
Brianna says
There is a local family-run dairy in junction City, Kansas where we use to live that gave the outdated or milk leftovers to their calves. They had a whole house of calves that would receive the milk. They had the most amazing system of any other dairy we have been too. Nothing went to waste!
Zoe says
We feed our calves milk but when there is a whole tractor trailer load that needs used ASAP, the calves can’t drink it fast enough 🙂
GBMAXX says
It a shame that the surplus can’t be freeze dried to offset the needs of the under privileged and underfed population of our country or some of our international contributions around the world.
Always remember that nothing is a waste until it’s actually wasted.
Carrie says
Why isn’t it sold to yogurt or cheese makers??? I vary rarely drink milk but I do enjoy dairy products daily like cream for coffee, ice cream, cheese, sour cream and yogurt.
Zoë says
It’s not as easy as just driving the milk to the nearest yogurt factory. I wish we could do that but unfortunately schedules and politics don’t necessarily line up to allow it.
Debby says
I often freeze milk in quart freezer bags, because it usually goes sour before I finish a gallon. My husband and daughter drink lactose free and the cost for that hasn’t budged at about $4 a half gallon. Cheese, heavy cream, butter and other dairy products continue to maintain high prices. One would think that with the surplus of milk there would also be a surplus of cream to make the other dairy products.
Kimberly says
Ridiculous. They should be donating to food pantries and shelters for battered women/children or the homeless. France recently made it mandatory for companies to do this; we should follow suit.
LL says
I am sure the farmers would be glad to donate to food pantries if they could afford to haul it away. Farmers and ranchers are not rich like some people think. They work hard for their money and can’t write off all their loses.
Linda says
Throughout the US there are huge factory “farms” which house sometimes 1000 to 3000 milking cows. They push these cows and they are milked sometimes 3 times a day. They are not allowed to get pregnant, so just produce milk and then are replaced. These huge farms are not farms at all but milk factories. The smaller dairies are often pushed out cause they can’t compete. Some smaller real dairy farms have converted to organic, so are still able to stay in business to sell to organic mill processing companies like Organic Valley CoOp, headquartered in Wisconsin. The milk that is dumped on fields has NOT been pasteurized, so is not able to be used for human consumption.Once it goes to a processor it gets pasteurized, and packaged and all that milk is most likely then sold.
Deborah from TEXAS says
People drank unpasteurized milk for decades. Are we too uptight to do it now? We know more about sanitation now than we did then. I agree on the freeze dried or donating it to needy people. There are too many people in the world, and yes in the USA that can’t afford to buy milk for their children. I am not a milk drinker, but I love cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products.
Patty M. says
It breaks my heart also to read about such waste. It could be utilized to feed animals and people. I think our society has become such a “Throw Away” society that we don’t think about it. I’m afraid it is going to take something drastic such as another depression before people wake up and realize what this society is doing. In Missouri I was told that milk can’t be given away. My grocery store used to give you a free gallon after you bought 10. They had to quit doing this because of the law.
Mrs. M says
I also don’t like the idea of wasted food, but it’s probably not as simple as just donating it. If the dairy can’t afford to ship it, it’s probably being dumped before it’s packaged… and dehydrating it would be expensive.
But, feeding it to the calves makes perfect sense to me! (Two Thumbs Up)
Sabrina says
Did you see the amount of cheese they got rid of too? I actually hope that dairy consumption continues to decline. We consume too much of it anyway.
Erin says
They may not be allowed to do anything else with it. When a commodity is heavily subsidized, there are a lot regulations they have to follow. Very sad, regardless. Maybe if enough people make a big enough fuss over it, they will change their policies?
Emily says
I buy local milk straight from the dairy farmer at $6 a gallon compared to $2.50 a gallon for commercial dairy at the grocery store. There’s something about seeing all the work the farmers put into providing me a product that makes me want to take care of what I’m buying. I wish there was more local products to realistically purchase.
Zoe says
Erin is correct. We can’t just donate it or even feed that much to the calves. Since we produce a raw product, it is actually illegal for us to sell milk without an expensive license and donating is next to impossible (nobody can handle that amount of milk before it spoils). Raw milk is deemed unsafe (I’ve consumed it my whole life and been fine, by the way) so we have no choice but to dump it.
We ourselves had to dump a load this summer because the plant we ship to could not take it due to their workers being on “holiday” (Memorial Day….you can’t shut off cows so personally I don’t think plants should be able to shut down but whatever.)
Much of that tractor trailer load we had to dump was, indeed, literally just dumped but we did get creative with some of it! We called as many friends as we could and allowed them to come fill jars. We fed our neighbors pigs and our own pigs for several days and we also watered our garden with it. I got the biggest sweet potato I’ve ever seen (over 10 lbs!) and I’m giving credit to our good raw milk
I hate the waste as much as anybody but the farmer really has no choice. The way co-ops/pricing/laws are set up, we are at the mercy of the CEOs of companies that never really set foot on a farm. It’s sad but it’s life!
Jo says
Thank you Zoe for sharing the farmers perspective. I grew up on a dairy and it was rare to have to dump, but heartbreaking to have to do so. Farmers don’t get paid for dumped milk!
Deborah from TEXAS says
Zoe, the farmer (dairy or other wise) has always gotten the raw end. I do admire you and your family. Although I’ve never been a milk drinker, I think it’s a shame that the laws are so that you can’t constructively put your excess to a good use. I’m not sure why I’ve never cared for milk, except butter milk, unless it’s because I drank formula for so long. Even after I was taken off the bottle. My oldest was about 3 months old when I put her on milk. Yes, pasteurized. She was drinking twice the amount of formula as “normal”.