U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was in Madison for the World Dairy Expo last week when he raised the specter of $6-a-gallon milk should Congress fail to renew the federal farm bill.
….After all, America hasn’t “got milk” in quite a while, as milk consumption has been dropping since at least 1975, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Brian Gould, an agriculture economist at UW-Madison, says a variety of factors are to blame for the change, including the advent of bottled water and other beverages, an aging population that drinks less milk, and changes in taste and preference. “It’s a structural problem,” he said. “It’s something that’s not short-term.”