Did You Know? - Milk

Milk

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Last updated on: 4/18/2013 10:03:21 AM PST

Did You Know?

Little Known Facts in the Milk Debate

In 2003, over 51% of North Americans with non-European ancestry were lactose intolerant. For East Asians the level of lactose intolerance was 90-100%.
One taco has more calcium than one cup of low fat milk, according to a 2005 United States Department of Agriculture report, although milk has twice the calcium of a cheeseburger.
According to the California Farm Bureau Federation, it takes 48.3 gallons of water to produce one eight ounce glass of milk. This water usage includes not just the water that the cow drinks but also the water it takes to grow the cow's food and the water it takes to process the milk.
People around the world consume the milk of goats, water buffalo, llamas, reindeer, horses, sheep, camels, and yaks.
Milk remains the most popular teen beverage after water except among black teens where it ranks behind water, fruit juice, and soda.
The Old Testament of the Bible makes about fifty references to milk and milk products and refers to the holy land as a "land which floweth with milk and honey."
A single dairy cow can annually emit almost 20 pounds of smog-forming gases known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) - more than a car or small truck.
As of Jan. 2013, the sale of raw milk in stores is legal in 12 states. 17 states only permit raw milk sales on farms; 4 states only allow raw milk acquisition through "cow-share" agreements; and in 17 other states all sales of raw milk are prohibited.
Milk accounted for about $27 billion in sales for dairy farmers in 2005, making milk the second largest agricultural commodity industry in the United States.
In a 1939 strike by the Dairy Farmers Union, milk farmers engaged in militant tactics such as blocking roads, confiscating and spilling out milk, physically fighting strike breakers, and setting fire to trucks that tried to cross road blockades.
Dairy cows in the US released over 2,000,000 metric tons of the greenhouse gas methane (22.6 MB) into the atmosphere in 2001 according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Dairy cows were the 5th largest emitters of the greenhouse gas methane in the US in 2001. They released 2.2% less methane than coal mining and 0.6% more than water treatment operations.
The 1990 Fluid Milk Promotion Act (105 KB) requires that "fluid milk products must be readily available and marketed efficiently" to the people of the United States.
A 1998 EPA study showed that US dairy cows produced 54 billion pounds of manure (553 KB) - 2.6 times the amount produced by the human population. [Note: We've been unable to find a more recent study.]
The National Dairy Board and the Fluid Milk Promotion Board spent over $420 million on generic milk advertising between 1984 and 1997. Per-capita milk consumption decreased throughout this period.
In 1996, the California Milk Processors Board and Mattel came out with a limited edition "got milk?" Barbie doll to advertise milk.
Since 1937, the wholesale price of milk has been set by the federal government under federal milk marketing orders (FMMO's). In 2006, about 60% of all milk sold in the United States was regulated under these FMMO's.
The National School Lunch Act (397 KB) requires that schools serve milk as part of the federally subsidized National School Lunch Program.
On Jan. 8, 2008 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruled that milk from cloned cows was safe for human consumption.
On Aug. 3, 2011, a Venice, CA health food store was raided by police for selling raw milk. The owner and two others were arrested and charged with mulitple felonies.

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