It’s the dollop of ice cream on a fresh piece of pie or just a dollop of ice cream in a bowl. Maybe it’s a large glass of chocolate milk either for breakfast or after a hard workout. Add in a couple of pieces of string cheese in your lunch bag, and it’s easy to see that we love our dairy products. June is National Dairy Month, and simply put, have you thanked a cow or dairy farmer today for that cool, refreshing treat?
While cows were first brought to America in 1611 as part of the Jamestown, VA, colony, it wasn’t until 1884 when the milk bottle was invented. Commercial pasteurization followed in 1895, and the modern dairy industry began to appear. Today, the industry encompasses the dairy farmers, processors and manufacturers and retailers and foodservice operators, making dairy a part of everyday life.
June hasn’t always been called National Dairy Month. In 1937, National Milk Month was started to promote milk consumption and stabilize the demand for dairy across the country. Today the month is a highlight of an industry which impacts us every day and its contributions to the United States and abroad.
Some fun facts about dairy include:
– In 2008, nearly 41 percent of the U.S. milk supply produced was used to make cheese. That’s a lot of nacho dip for your summer picnics!
– Milk supplies half of all the Vitamin D in the American diet, and for kids age 2 to 18, milk supplies nearly two-thirds of their Vitamin D.
– The manufacturing of cheese in America began with a group of Swiss immigrants in Green County, WI, in 1845.
– President George Washington spent $200 for ice cream during the summer of 1790. Records don’t indicate whether it was butter pecan or chocolate chip mint.
Did you know that the average consumer, in a given year, will consume:
– 23.5 pounds of low-fat milk
– 13.7 pounds of flavored milk
– 33.9 pounds of cheese
– 11.8 pounds of ice cream
– 5.1 pounds of butter
That’s a LOT of dairy and certainly something to thank a cow for! So raise a cold one (chocolate milk, stirred, not shaken!) to toast a cow–and the entire dairy industry–today!
