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- The Facts:Good news: dairy milk sales dropped by $1.1 billion in 2018! This is partly due to a consumer shift towards plant-based alternatives.
- Reflect On:Is it time to walk away from unhealthy foods that harm animals in the process of creation? Does it make sense to keep listening to a dairy lobby using deception to sell products?
Good news! Dairy sales dropped by $1.1 billion in 2018! You may not know why this is good news just yet, but we’ll get there! Dairy Farmers of America during released the new statistics during an annual meeting in 2018. Sales dropped 8% from $14.7 billion in 2017 to $13.6 billion in 2018. This was due to low milk prices and a massive consumer shift toward plant-based alternatives like cashew milk, almond milk and soy milk.
In response to the losses, dairy lobbyists have been pushing to ban marketable terminology like ‘milk,’ ‘cheese’ and ‘dairy free’ from being used by creators of plant-based products. It seems the hope is that this will confuse the marketplace or make it harder to describe new products, ultimately pushing people back to dairy.
The act was officially titled “The Defending Against Imitations and Replacements of Yogurt, Milk, and Cheese to Promote Regular Intake of Dairy Everyday Act.” Michele Simon, the executive director of 130-member lobby group Plant Based Food Association, believes this is misleading and unconstitutional.
