For more than a decade, Americans have been steadily drinking less milk each year.
But the latest federal data shows sales of milk beverages turned around in 2024, increasing by 358 million pounds or just under 1 percentage point from the previous year to 43.2 billion pounds. It’s the result of a resurgence in sales of whole milk, which have been trending upward since 2014. The category saw a 3 percent increase from 2023 and helped offset the continued declines in most other categories, including reduced-fat and skim milk.
Leonard Polzin, dairy markets and policy outreach specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension, said whole milk has benefited from the diet craze around protein, driven in large part by health and fitness influencers online. “The more protein, the better. Consumers are all about that,” he said. “The other portion is kind of a shift towards healthy fats too. So for example, cottage cheese is having a real moment right now.”
Industry data shows whole milk consumption is up in both households with children and those without, according to Karen Gefvert, chief policy officer for the Green Bay-based Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative.
Gefvert said whole milk has also benefited from increasing consumer interest in whole foods and foods that are minimally processed. She said that trend has been boosted by the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda. “There are a ton of really great things in whole milk, and I think that’s resonating with consumers,” Gefvert said.
Federal data going back to 1975 shows total U.S. milk sales peaked in 2009 at more than 55.4 billion pounds. That total steadily declined to a record low of 42.8 billion pounds in 2023.
As part of these trends, Polzin pointed out that consumption of plant-based milk alternatives have recently declined. But he said it’s hard to know if those consumers are making the shift back to dairy or if they’re simply not drinking as much milk of any kind.
Polzin said increasing consumption of milk is especially good for dairy farmers. That’s because milk sold as beverages, what the industry refers to as fluid milk, has a greater impact on the prices paid to farmers.
But Gefvert said this effect is not as prominent in Wisconsin, where most milk is processed into cheese and other products. She said most farmers in the state have a more subdued take on last year’s sales increase.
“It was not significant, and is likely just sort of a pause in the inevitable continuous decline in fluid milk sales,” Gefvert said.
She said there is hope that whole milk sales will continue to increase, especially if federal legislation to reintroduce the option to the National School Lunch Program can gain traction. The Whole Milk for Health Kids Act passed the U.S. Senate in November.
Source: Wisconsin Public Radio
