By 2005, only 7% of total fluid milk consumption was traded internationally. As follows, the global consumption of milk and current success in local foodways is largely depended on traditional modes of processing. Even though the dairy industry currently represents significant portions of agricultural industries worldwide (e.g. 10% of Chinese agricultural industry and 11% of U.S. agricultural industry), the initiatives and processes via which milk came to be globally produced and consumed were largely shaped and influenced by varied medical, cultural and nationalist claims across regions. To illustrate this, anthropologist Andrea S. Wiley compares milk consumption rates between America, India, and China across time. Whereas U.S. milk consumption currently stands at 76% of its 1970 rate, milk consumption in China and India increased enormously since 1970, going up 1700% and 240%, respectively. Interestingly, as U.S. milk consumption began to decrease, milk consumption became more widespread in India and China. Why this? According to Wiley, milk consumption in China was considered a cultural taboo due to the Ming’s nationalist agenda to denigrate foods associated with the ‘barbarian’ Mongols. In India, milk consumption never became widespread as the population consists of a significant number of lactose-intolerant and vegan peoples. Milk consumption only gained popularity in the 1970s in India and in the 1990s in China, primarily due to various medical reports (however no scientific evidence!) and government incentives (India – White Revolution) placing emphasizes on the numerous health benefits of milk (highly calorific; calcium and iron) and encouraging its consumption. Furthermore, milk consumption came to be considered modern in Asia (as it was associated with western ways of living) and hence was utilized to promote cultural and nationalist claims, with slogans such as “The Country [India] Needs You, Grow Faster” or “One cup of milk can strengthen a nation [China]”. In contrast, milk in the U.S. came to resemble the ‘disease of modernity’. According to Wiley, the drop in U.S. milk consumption is related to an unprecedented rise in bottled soft drinks, waters, and juices (U.S. adults currently drink almost eight times more soda/fruit drinks than milk).
Wiley A., “Milk for ‘Growth’: Global and Local Meanings of Milk Consumption in China, India, and the United States,” Foods & Foodways, 19/1-2 (2011), pp. 11-33.