Milk is a good source of many essential nutrients, including protein, calcium and vitamin D. Many people consider milk as a vital part of a balanced diet. However, others, cite various reasons for choosing not to consume it. Some sources of milk and milk products include sheep, cows, camels, goats, and many others. Milk alternatives include soy milk, almond milk, flax milk, coconut milk, and hemp milk.
World Milk Day celebrates all kinds of milk- from a cool glass of milk, hot butter being spread seamlessly across toast, or a heaping bowl of ice cream. World Milk Day has been observed on June 1 each year since 2001.
World Milk Day was organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to celebrate the dairy industry and recognize milk as a globally important food. World Milk Day seeks to start a conversation on how affordable, nutritious, and accessible milk is around the globe — not to mention delicious!
HISTORY OF WORLD MILK DAY
Sometimes, one of the funniest question we ask ourselves is, “what was the first guy to drink milk thinking?” How did He discover that humans can consume milk from animals? While his thoughts may be lost to the ether of time, we do have some knowledge about how milk came to be a popular and stable source of nutrition for early humans. Even though humans began to drink milk when animals were domesticated in the Neolithic age around 9000–7000 B.C., lactose tolerance was lost in adults for all of humanity’s history before this age. Until a later genetic mutation allowed us to drink milk, early humans mostly ate fermented dairy products, which were more easily digestible.
Milk became important in many cultures, both for spiritual and logical reasons;
-for ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Sumerians, milk was a key element in mythology.
-some people in Western Africa believed the universe started with a single drop of milk.
-Mongolians traveled with dried horse milk that would be reconstituted and provide nourishment on long journeys.
As much as milk was worshipped, it was also ridiculed.
The next chapter in the history of milk comes with industrialization. While most countries and cultures had adopted milk, many places just weren’t close enough to farms with milk to enjoy it.
Throughout the 1800s, there was much innovation around milk, from breweries opening dairies to feed their spent grains to cows, to vaccines being invented by watching how milkmaids avoided smallpox.
Milk has clearly had a huge impact on our society, but the demand and production of it have shifted dramatically in recent years. In 2016, milk was overproduced in several countries and many, including China, put a stop to any milk imports. In recent years, many dairies have filed for bankruptcy, as trends are shifting towards alternative, non-dairy milk. Due to COVID-19, dairy farmers have been dumping millions of gallons of milk per day. Who knows what will happen to dairy next!
#ItsWolrdMilkDay
Make sure you consume something Milly today