Milk does the body good! But that household phrase doesn’t mean consumers are drinking as much as they used to. The demand for milk has decreased, but the dairy industry is hard at work to make that change. Thanks to partnerships with Dairy Checkoff, you might be seeing lactose free or higher protein milk on shelves. Or different flavors and packaging. Chuck chatted with Steve Maddox, Chairman of the National Dairy Board and California dairy farmer, about these very ideas at the recent World Dairy Expo.

“We have a crisis. In the last 40 years we have had a decrease in the general consumption of milk per capita and it’s excelled in the last two years. That’s distressful for the industry because for the majority of the dairymen that is the highest value in milk prices. Although on the flip side of that, for bottlers and processors, it is the narrowest margin they have. And so that leads to a lack of innovation for the bottlers. So, what we are doing at DMI is putting out $14 million of seed money and grants to innovate the industry through lactose free products, change in bottling, container design, advertising or different formulations for the demanding consumer.”

“The decrease in fluid milk sales and consumption is an industry problem and its got to be solved industry wide, not just from our promotion and checkoff dollars and in doing this grant we can get the partners.”

You can listen to Chuck’s complete interview with Steve here: Steve Maddox Interview

2012 World Dairy Expo Photo Album