In 2001, World Milk Day was established by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations to recognize the importance of milk as a global food, and to celebrate the dairy sector. Each year since, the benefits of milk and dairy products have been actively promoted around the world, including how dairy supports the livelihoods of one billion people. In 2022, World Milk Day falls on Wednesday, June 1. This year’s theme will highlight the work already being done to accelerate climate action and help reduce the dairy sector’s impact on the planet. Using the World Milk Day platform, we will aim to raise awareness of the messaging and action towards Dairy Net Zero.
History of World Milk Day
Today, we attempt to answer the age-old question: what was the first guy to drink milk thinking? 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. 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 example, for ancient Egyptians, Greeks, 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. While early Japanese Buddhists mocked those who consumed butter, Northern Europeans were thought disgusting for consuming reindeer milk. In Rome, milk was thought to be a low-class beverage, only to be consumed by farmers who had no other choice.
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. Enter railways. Suddenly, urban demand for milk in places like London and Paris skyrocketed. Rural imports transformed milk into a big-time market. 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!
