
Memories and Milestones
First, a brief summary of dairy industry evolution since the turn of the last century:
From hand milking to
using robots.
From feeding skim milk to
the hogs to a global multibillion-dollar dry milk protein industry.
From dumping whey in
streams to a sophisticated highly technologically driven global whey
protein industry.
From cows producing less
than 3,500 pounds of milk per year to nearly 19,000 pounds.
From about 6,000 fluid
milk plants four decades ago to about 600.
From plants processing 1
million pounds of milk per year to processing a billion pounds per year.
From a $3.14/cwt milk
price support in 1949 when price supports started to a peak of $13.49/cwt
in 1981.
From drinking 34 gallons
of milk per person annually in 1909 to about 20 gallons.
From eating about 4
pounds of natural cheese per person annually to more than 30 pounds.
From eating less than a
quart of ice cream and frozen desserts per person per year to about 22
quarts.
From home delivery to
store bought and now to home again.
It was a cold November day in 1934, just before
Thanksgiving, the day my family normally butchered hogs for our
winter’s meat supply, when I first appeared. I was born in one
of the two bedrooms of a small house on an 80 acre farm my mother and
father rented in Missouri. Later, my two older sisters and I shared the
bedroom.
At the age of 5, just a short 65 years ago, I milked
my first cow, by hand, while sitting on a little three-legged red metal
stool that my dad had lowered the legs of, to make it short enough to
accommodate my 5-year-old frame. Later, milking our 30- to 40-cow
herd became my responsibility until I happily left for the University of
Missouri. Fortunately, Dad had purchased a milking machine.
One of my happiest moments was when Dad announced he
had sold our entire dairy herd and that the last milking would be the
following morning. Little did I know this was the beginning of a new
career for Dad, whereby he developed and sold dairy herds. The intervals
between selling and building a new one were far too short for my liking.
I didn’t know it back then, but the first
federal milk marketing license (the predecessor to Federal Milk Orders) was
implemented in Boston the year before I was born. In 1935, four years
before milking my first cow, this early law was found unconstitutional by
the U.S. Supreme Court because the court held it was too vague, provided
insufficient guidance to regulators, and that Congress had
unconstitutionally delegated its constitutional responsibilities to the
Executive Branch.
Following a series of other court cases (and still two
years before milking my first cow) Congress passed the 1937 Federal Milk
Marketing Act to remedy the defects of the earlier law, and the federal
milk marketing order program as we know it became the law of the land.
Federal milk marketing orders now classify, price, pool and regulate
the marketing of more than 70 percent of total U.S. milk production.
In the early years of Dairy Field’s predecessors,
public health issues were of paramount concern. In 1906, just three
years after my dad was born, Congress passed the first Federal Food and
Drug Act. This four-page law was replaced by what is now a 435-page law in
1938 (a year before I milked my first cow).
Milk-borne illnesses were a significant force in
developing a strong public health program. The 1906 law was a humble model
of the current, extensive and sophisticated dairy food safety programs.
In 1949, the year after I started high school and
while I was still milking my parents’ cows, the federal price-support
program was enacted. While I did not know it at the time, this law was a
partial basis for my employment for many years. It, plus federal milk
marketing orders, are often referred to by dairy lawyers and economists as
the “dairy full-employment act”.
I invited your attention to these three laws because
of their longevity and significance to all elements of the dairy industry.
While it has been fun to write these tongue-in-cheek
historical anecdotes, I commend the more complete list of milk-history
milestones published by IDFA in the 2004 edition of Dairy Facts.
Congratulations to Dairy Field for 100 years of
service to the dairy industry, and what a great service it has been.
Informing, educating, leading and sometimes cajoling an industry to achieve
what it is capable of achieving is a burdensome task. Dairy Field and the
Stagnito family have had a long and truly great performance. Thanks!
Tip Tipton, chairman and chief executive officer of the
Washington, D.C.-based Tipton Group, is the former CEO of the International
Dairy Foods Association.
Faces at the forum — 2005 dairy forum
How are you taking advantage of school milk
opportunities?
“We’re working more with schools to get
them more familiar with the nutritional and weight-loss aspects of milk. I
sent personal letters to principals and foodservice directors to explain
it.”
What new products have been most successful for you?
“Brand-new ice cream flavors like Wedding Cake
and Cookies Cookies Cookies. The Great Divide is the biggest surprise
— chocolate and vanilla in the same half gallon. Not so much the
low-carbs — it’s more niche than mainstream.”
$OMN_arttitle="Memories and Milestones";?>