The state of Idaho has declared milk the official state beverage. The bill was passed this week, following on the heels of 2007’s $2 billion dairy industry in the state.
While the bill has drawn humor, it is intended to decrease childhood obesity, said its sponsor, Rep. Branden Durst, D-Boise. He said that soda pop consumption continues to rise while milk consumption decreases, and that the Legislature has a responsibility as role models.
“I just had a glass this morning – it was fantastic,” Durst told the committee. Committee Chairman Tom Trail, R-Moscow, who is a co-sponsor, followed: “I had a glass at lunch.”
The vote came shortly after a presentation by the United Dairymen of Idaho that concluded with the organization handing out duffle bags stuffed with dairy products, including cheese, yogurt and milk. Rep. Jim Patrick, R-Twin Falls, a farmer, sipped milk during the vote.
Last month, industry officials told state lawmakers that Idaho dairies produced 10.5 billion gallons of milk. The milk production grew by 50 percent between 2000 and 2006, they said.
There are at least 18 states that have designated milk as its official state drink. Durst said that the first state to designate milk as its official beverage was New York – which, minutes earlier, Deanna Sessions of the United Dairymen of Idaho said Idaho would overcome shortly to become third in the nation in milk production.
Support for the bill came from Idaho Milk Producers, Idaho Farm Bureau and the Idaho Dairymen’s Association.