December 13, 2012

US milk consumption has seen a 30% drop since 1975.

The most likely reasons are the plethora of new drinks on offer from smoothies to energy drinks to iced teas.

Another reason could be low-fat diets or diets that stress reducing consumption of milk, which is increasingly seen as unhealthy and even unnatural.

It also could be that children, who are the biggest consumers of milk, are a smaller portion of the US population than they once were.

Despite milk's precipitous decline as the alternative to water, pseudo-milk drinks made from rice, soy and almonds were up 16%.

Dairy products like yogurt and cheese have also seen a similar rise.

The dairy industry is fighting back with new products like protein-enhanced milk for fitness buffs and smaller milk containers for people on the go.

It's not the first time the milk industry has felt the need to fight back.

The early 1990s campaign "Got Milk?" was an enormous US$23 million campaign that spent as much as some of the largest brands in the US - an unprecedented move for a food industry organisation.

The website has since been refurbished with the first image a swing at soy, almond and coconut drinks calling them "imitation milk."