We can do better

There are alternatives to dumping excess milk

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When I saw evening news footage of Wisconsin dairy farmers dumping milk down the drain, I used my news outlets and social media platforms to vent my frustration and to suggest that we could find a way to get these products to people who need them. Thankfully, programs have been established to bring some of the excess milk, cheese and produce to food banks and other facilities that are helping people who are unemployed and feeling squeezed due to the impacts of COVID-19.

But there is a larger question we need to address: How can we take today's problems and find long-term solutions that extend far beyond the current pandemic? 

COVID-19 has highlighted the systemic issues affecting milk production and delivery. Farmer Jones milks cows, a truck picks up the milk, a production facility pasteurizes and packages the product, and a distribution system brings it to our stores, restaurants, and schools. All of this happens in a matter of hours, not days, weeks or months — hours. If any part of the system is disrupted, Farmer Jones is seen on the nightly news pouring good milk down the drain. 

A short-term solution added new outlets to the system to replace schools and restaurants with shelters and food banks and we were back in business, sort of. But systemic issues remain. On the supply side, small farms are being replaced by mega farms or CAFOs with thousands of cows. Wisconsin is losing 10-20% of small farms every year, yet we are milking more cows than ever before. On the demand side, prices are established by the consumer and supply and demand. These new mega farms have discovered the cost effectiveness of mass production, thus lowering costs and further exacerbating the problems of small farmers. On the demand side, milk is becoming less popular with U.S. consumers as a multitude of other beverage options occupy our grocery shelves. 

Now allow me to make another observation — the U.S. is protein rich and China is protein poor, and China has four times as many people as we do. China both needs and wants our milk. In fact they are so desperate for protein they buy our whey by the shipload. What is whey? Whey protein is created by taking the liquid that forms when making cheese. Whey is a product we once flushed down the sewer in our cheese plants; now we dry it and sell as a powder. In the U.S. bodybuilders swear by the stuff, but in China they put it in everything to add protein to everyone's diet. Did I mention there are 1.3 billion Chinese?

Milk presents a tougher problem. It takes a lot of hours to ship anything to China; in fact, it takes weeks, even months. We would need a shelf-stable product and who knows if we can do that. Well, Suzanne Fanning of Wisconsin Cheese pointed me to Katie Hepler with Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin who directed me to Adam Brock (also with the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin), who said they would be happy to help and pointed me to The Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Researchers there said it is possible to make a shelf-stable milk product — there are companies in Illinois and Wisconsin doing it now. The problem is finding a market for the product. 

If we are going to spend nearly $3 trillion on our economic recovery, why not spend a little on factories to process all our excess milk into shelf-stable dairy products and sell it to China, where it is wanted and needed? Professionals in the dairy industry are ready and willing to work on solutions. The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are willing to promote a global program and the Center for Dairy Research will help develop and expand production of shelf-stable products. 

Let's get someone to call the president and let him know we have a product for China and ask him if he could help us out. We could also mention he must have Wisconsin to win reelection and let his ego take over from there.

My guess is that if we really thought outside the box, we could use COVID-19 to solve many of the world's bigger problems.

Ken Harwood is editor and publisher of WisconsinDevelopment.com and WDNGreen.com.