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Did You Know?

Little Known Facts in the Milk Debate:
  1. In 2003, over 51% of North Americans with non-European ancestry were lactose intolerant.

  2. 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.

  3. People around the world consume the milk of goats, water buffalo, llamas, reindeer, horses, sheep, camels, and yaks.

  4. 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."

  5. As of 2004, the retail sale of raw cow's milk for human consumption was illegal in 42 states. Eight states - AZ, CA, CT, ME, NM, PA, SC, and WA - allow retail sales of raw cow's milk in stores.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, dairy cows in the United States released over 2,000,000 metric tons of the greenhouse gas methane ( PDF 22.6MB) into the atmosphere in 2005.

  9. The 1990 Fluid Milk Promotion Act ( PDF 105KB) requires that "fluid milk products must be readily available and marketed efficiently" to the people of the United States.

  10. 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.

  11. In 1996, the California Milk Processors Board and Mattel came out with a limited edition "got milk?" Barbie doll to advertise milk.

  12. 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.

  13. The National School Lunch Act ( PDF 397KB) requires that schools serve milk as part of the federally subsidized National School Lunch Program.
If you have any little known, straightforward, and interesting facts that you’d like to share, please contact us. Please include a link or reference to your source.

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