The Worldwide Milkshed. 

It’s the worldwide milk delivery system that begins with forages and grains that a cow eats and ends with dairy products that end up on a consumer’s table.

The Worldwide Milkshed has many layers –  on-farm production, transportation,  regulations, politics, legal events, economics, never-ending debate and consumer perception.  It is local, it is regional, it is national, it is international, and could become inter-galactic.

The Worldwide Milkshed is many things at one time.  It is magical, mysterious, mean, money-generating and money-hungry,  manifold,  mandatory for the economic survival of rural economies, logical and irrational, and a key to providing protein for the world’s ever-growing and ever-hungry population.

But most of all, the Worldwide Milkshed is about PEOPLE.  People who live on multi-generation family farms, run dairy farm businesses, and who love the land. People who make their living from transporting milk, processing milk, selling milk, promoting milk,  consuming milk, and talking about milk.  People who are inspired by milk to benefit society, or harm society.  People who benefit from milk’s nutritional contribution to the world – after all, it has long been determined to be “nature’s most nearly perfect food.’

Most would say the most important layer in the Worldwide Milkshed is the dairy farmer – where the sweat happens, the nights never end, the challenges are great, the financial rewards lean- or lucrative, and the dedication to getting the job done while producing food for others the strongest. The farmer is the heart and soul of the Worldwide Milkshed.

The Worldwide Milkshed is a symbiotic relationship – for consumers to benefit, farmers must benefit, and remain financially sustainable.  Both are forever intertwined, and must listen to each other in honest dialogue, not rowdy rhetoric.  This blog will be a platform for listening, and reasoning, and then taking action.

May God Bless the Worldwide Milkshed!

The Worldwide Milkshed – let the discussions begin!