Milk

Introduction
Pros
- Pro 1: Dairy milk is an important part of a healthy diet for everyone.
- Pro 2: Dairy milk is an easy, nutritional drink that is available almost everywhere.
- Pro 3: Dairy milk protects against disease and other health problems in older adults.
Cons
- Con 1: Humans do not need to consume dairy milk to be healthy.
- Con 2: Dairy milk is bad for the environment.
- Con 3: Dairy milk is bad for human health.
Slideshow: Cows and other dairy milk animals
How milk gets from the cow to the store
- Step one: Rearing
- Step two: Harvesting
- Step three: Storing
- Step four: Transportation
- Step five: Lab testing
- Step seven: Packaging
- Step eight: Selling
American milk production
Global milk production
Global milk consumption
State-by-state raw milk laws
Calcium content in select foods
Historical timeline
- 8000 BC-63 BC
  - 8000 BC - Origins of the domestic cow
  - 4000 BC - Early evidence of milking cattle in neolithic Britain
  - 3000 BC - Evidence of dairy cows playing a major role in ancient Sumerian civilization
  - 3100 BC - The domesticated cow appears in ancient Egyptian civilization
  - 2000 BC - The domesticated cow appears in northern Indian Vedic civilization
  - 1700-63 BC - Milk in ancient Hebrew civilization and the Bible
- 1525-1776
  - 1525 - The first cattle brought to the Americas arrive at Vera Cruz, Mexico
  - 1624 - The first cattle brought to New England arrive at Plymouth colony
  - 1679-1776 - Milk and the Spanish California missions
- 1800-1899
  - Early 1800s - Milk maids and the compulsory smallpox vaccine in the United States
  - 1840-1920s - Milk production and distillery dairies in the United States
  - 1822-1895 - The drocess of dasteurization is developed by Louis Pasteur
  - March 23, 1883 - The New York milk war
  - 1884 - First glass milk bottles patented
  - 1893 - Dr. Henry L. Coit forms the Medical Milk Commission to certify raw milk
  - 1895 - Commercial pasteurization of milk begins
  - 1899 - Milk homogenizer is patented
- 1900-1949
  - 1913 - Typhoid epidemic in New York City
  - 1914 - The first Milk tanker trucks are introduced
  - 1917 - Mandatory pasteurization of milk begins
  - 1922 - Capper-Volstead Act passed
  - 1933 - Sioux City milk war
  - 1937 - First milk marketing orders initiated
  - August 28, 1939 - Dairy Farmers Union strike
  - June 4, 1940 - First federal milk program for schools
  - 1940s - Federally subsidized milk advertising under the Works Progress Administration
  - 1946 - National School Lunch Act passed
- 1950-1999
  - 1950s-1960s - Square milk carton introduced
  - October 11, 1966 - Child Nutrition Act of 1966 and the Special Milk Program
  - 1974 - Nutrition labeling of fluid milk begins
  - 1983 - Dairy Act of 1983 and the creation of the National Dairy Board
  - 1990 - Fluid Milk Promotion Act
  - 1992 - First USDA Food Pyramid is released
  - 1993 - "Got Milk?" advertising campaign launched
  - November 5, 1993 - Artificial Bovine Growth Hormone approved by FDA
  - 1994 - Protests against Artificial Bovine Growth Hormone Ensue
  - 1994 - FDA issues rBST labeling guidelines
  - 1995 - Dairy Management, Inc. (DMI) formed
  - 1995 - "Got Milk?" Barbie released
  - 1997 - Harvard study on milk and bone health released
  - 1998 - National raw milk campaign initiated
- 2000-present
  - December 2001 - Merger forms largest U.S. dairy producer
  - December 2002 - PETA files false advertising lawsuit against the California Milk Board
  - January 5, 2004 - Dean Foods acquires Horizon Organic
  - 2004 - Milk and weight loss ad campaign initiated
  - 2005 - Organic milk’s popularity continues to grow
  - 2005 - USDA dietary guidelines released
  - October 2005 - Physicians group files lawsuit demanding lactose intolerance warnings on milk
  - 2007 - Japanese man creates beer from milk
  - 2007 - Milk and weight-loss claims withdrawn
  - April 16, 2007 - Nation’s largest organic dairy violates organic rules
  - August 21, 2007 - FTC affirms the legality of ‘rBST free’ labels on milk
  - 2007-2008 - China’s tainted milk scandal
  - January 8, 2008 - FDA approves cloned milk for human consumption
  - August 3, 2011 - Market in Venice, CA raided by police for selling raw milk; Three arrested
  - March 2012 - U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) release report on dangers of raw milk
  - February 24, 2014 - “Got Milk?” advertising campaign dropped, replaced with “Milk Life”
  - 2015 - U.S. sales of dairy milk fall as non-dairy milk sales rise
  - June 1, 2016 - Australian regulators approve cold-pressure processing as alternative to pasteurization
  - September 25, 2019 - Milk residue found in prehistoric baby bottles
  - January 6, 2020 - Two largest American dairy companies file for bankruptcy
  - April 2020 - Dairy farmers to dump up to 3.7 million gallons of milk per day due to COVID-19 pandemic
  - 2022 - Number of American dairy farms dropped 95 percent since 1970
  - January 8, 2025 - Study shows increasing milk consumption may lower risk of colorectal cancer
  - January 7, 2026 - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. flips food pyramid, putting dairy at the top
  - January 14, 2026 - Pres. Trump signs bill allowing whole milk in school lunches
Assessment quiz
1-minute survey
Discussion questions
Sources

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images, Videos & Interactives

Milk splashing out of a clear glass against a blue background, with droplets suspended in midair.

Pasteurization of Milk

Holstein dairy cow

Brown Swiss cow.

Portrait of a Nigerian dwarf goat facing forward with blue eyes clearly visible, set against a blurred green background.

La Mancha goat.

A girl milking a goat.

Milk: Media

Should humans consume dairy milk?

Videos

The New Deal

The New Deal

Did You Know? The New Deal. Implemented under the direction of President Franklin...

Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Images

Milk splashing out of a clear glass against a blue background, with droplets suspended in midair.

Milk

Should humans consume dairy milk?

© Valentyn75/Dreamstime.com

Pasteurization of Milk

Pasteurization of Milk

Equipment for the high-temperature, short-time pasteurization of milk.

© Larry Lefever/Grant Heilman Photography, Inc.

Holstein dairy cow

Holstein dairy cow

A dairy cow.

© Photograph taken by Alan Hopps—Moment/Getty Images

Ayrshire cow.

Ayrshire cow.

Dairy Cow.

© Larry Lefever/Grant Heilman Photography, Inc.

Guernsey cow.

Guernsey cow.

Dairy Cow.

Grant Heilman Photography

Brown Swiss cow.

Brown Swiss cow.

Dairy cow.

© Sally Anne Thompson/Animal Photography

Jersey cow.

Jersey cow.

Dairy Cow.

© Sally Anne Thompson/Animal Photography

Portrait of a Nigerian dwarf goat facing forward with blue eyes clearly visible, set against a blurred green background.

Nigerian goat.

Dairy goat.

© DebraAnderson/stock.adobe.com

La Mancha goat.

La Mancha goat.

Dairy goat.

© Julie Green

A girl milking a goat.

A girl milking a goat.

Dairy goat.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

A carabao, or Philippine water buffalo, grazes on grass at the edge of a river, with its head lowered and curved horns visible.

Philippines water buffalo.

Dairy water buffalo.

© Yooran Park/Dreamstime.com

Dromedary camel.

Dromedary camel.

Dairy camel.

Jjron

A Kyrgyz woman in a patterned coat and headscarf milks a large domestic yak on dry highland pastures with mountains in the background in the eastern Pamirs, Tajikistan.

A Kyrgyz woman milking a domestic yak.

Dairy yak.

© Evgenii Zotov—Moment Unreleased/Getty Images

A black yak (Bos grunniens) stands on dry grass with snow-covered Himalayan mountains in the background in Nepal.

A black yak.

Dairy yak.

© Daniel Prudek/stock.adobe.com

A wild yak (Bos mutus) with long shaggy black fur and curved horns grazes on dry grass in an open plain.

A wild yak.

Dairy yak.

© Okyela/Dreamstime.com

Caribou, also known as reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), with large antlers and a white winter coat stands in deep snow on a snowy tundra landscape.

A reindeer (caribou).

Dairy reindeer.

© Pav-Pro Photography/stock.adobe.com

Adult donkey standing beside her foal in a grassy field with a soft, blurred background.

A donkey and her foal.

Dairy donkey.

© Geza Farkas/stock.adobe.com

Domestic sheep.

Domestic sheep.

Dairy sheep.

AdstockRF

Rettir sheep

Rettir sheep

Dairy sheep.

© Feifei Cui-Paoluzzo—Moment Open/Getty Images

A herd of Friesian dairy cows with black and white markings grazes on a lush green pasture under an open sky.

Dairy cows.

Friesian (Holstein) dairy cows grazing on lush green pasture.

© Ecophoto/Dreamstime.com

John Calvin Coolidge milking a cow.

John Calvin Coolidge milking a cow.

In an undated photo, the 30th U.S. president (1923–29) is seen milking a cow.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Pasteurization.

Pasteurization.

Equipment for the high-temperature short-time pasteurization of milk.

© Larry Lefever/Grant Heilman Photography, Inc.

A mother reads the label on a dairy product in a supermarket aisle while her young daughter sits in the shopping cart and reaches toward the shelves.

A grocery store dairy case.

A mother reads a label on a dairy food item while grocery shopping in a supermarket...

© Ariel Skelley—DigitalVision/Getty Images

Junipero Serra

Junipero Serra

Junipero Serra (1713-1784) (Junipero Serra) Spanish Franciscan priest.

"San Diego Mission" by Fr. Zephyrin Engelhardt, O.F.M., 1920

Edward Jenner

Edward Jenner

Edward Jenner (1749-1823) discovered the vaccine for smallpox.

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1977.14.13111

Louis Pasteur

Louis Pasteur

French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur experimenting on a chloroformed rabbit,...

National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson

President Lyndon B. Johnson in the Oval Office, December, 1963.

LBJ Library photo by Arnold Newman

USDA Food Guide Pyramid.

USDA Food Guide Pyramid.

The 2005 food pyramid issued by the USDA.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

World map showing the prevalence of lactose intolerance by country, with darker shades of blue indicating higher frequencies. Most of Europe has low lactose intolerance (lightest blue), while high frequencies (dark blue) are seen across much of Africa, East Asia, and parts of South America. Intermediate shades appear in the Middle East, South Asia, and Central America.

Lactose intolerance.

Global distribution of lactose intolerance.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Interactives

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia was the site of the world's first civilization. The region produced the...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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