Author: Rachel Ravencraft

In Washington, Change is a Challenge

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

As the initial flurry of activity in the new administration and Congress moves into the heat of summer in Washington, the challenges and fault lines that come with addressing major issues including labor, trade and taxes are becoming increasingly clear.  

This should come as a surprise to no one.  

To put it plainly, change is difficult. Movement on issues that have seen decades of gridlock and tinkering along the edges because of a lack of political will are especially hard. This isn’t a secret, and the turbulence agriculture policy is seeing is likely to continue for some time. While that’s occurring, it will be important for everyone in dairy and agriculture to remain focused on advancing our industry and ensuring that we embrace the current environment for its opportunities while remaining vigilant among its threats.  

Take labor, for example. The balance between the administration’s goals of ensuring border security and deporting people who are not legally residing in the United States with ensuring the economic health of rural communities by maintaining an adequate workforce for farms is clearly recognized by the president and by USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins. We are grateful for the president’s sympathy for farmers and the secretary’s work on their behalf — still, but more importantly, his continued willingness to tackle complex policy topics that have languished for decades. 

That’s why we agree with Jim Boyle, the vice-chairman of NMPF member co-op the United Dairymen of Arizona who we recently profiled in our Farmer Focus feature series. “The president is right about securing the border, but any enforcement action needs to go hand-in-hand with a labor reform package,” he said.  

We continue to work for either a change to the current H2-A farmworker visa that will accommodate dairy’s year-round nature or, in the absence of that, a new guestworker program that meets dairy’s needs. In the meantime, dairy farmers who are meeting requirements for worker documentation shouldn’t be living with worries about immigration raids on their farms. It isn’t good to have open borders and criminals crossing over it. But it’s also not good for dairy farmers, or rural communities, to be deprived of hard-working, law-abiding labor that’s paid well and willing to do work native-born Americans have always been less willing to do, caring for animals around the clock and ensuring a steady supply of nutritious dairy products for Americans and the world.  

Similarly, efforts to dramatically reset trade relationships worldwide are inevitably meeting challenges. But for all the concern over tariffs, it’s also important to remember that, through April, the value of U.S. dairy exports in 2025 is actually higher than it was the previous year. While no one is claiming that everything is roses on the trade front, it’s critical to remember that U.S. dairy continues to compete successfully and build relationships with global partners amid the day-to-day noise of headlines.  

And finally, policy advancements are happening domestically. The Senate is poised to pass its own version of The Big, Beautiful Bill that the House approved in May. The differences between the two chambers are significant, and negotiations over details may take maddeningly long. But with major tax increases looming in 2026 if Congress doesn’t get its work done in time, the incentives to complete a package are overwhelming. And both versions contain significant wins for dairy farmers, from the extension of the Dairy Margin Coverage Program through 2031 to making permanent the Section 199(A) tax deduction that helps cooperatives stay competitive.  

Rome wasn’t built in a day, decades of unfair trade policies won’t evaporate overnight, and farm-labor issues that haven’t been taken seriously since the last major legislation in 1986 won’t be solved in one growing season. But dairy will survive, and can thrive, as these critical questions gain serious attention and a genuine desire for answers. We are in for a hot summer and a challenging fall. But we can, and will, come out ahead.  

Gregg Doud

President & CEO, NMPF

 

FARM Program Offers HR and Safety Support

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

By Sage Saffran, Manager, Sustainability Initiatives

Dairy owners and managers are often looking for ways to attract and retain employees. That’s why the National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Workforce Development Program offers resources to support farms in recruiting, training and managing workers. The program equips dairy owners and managers with tools to enhance safe and thriving work environments.

Developed in consultation with professional and academic experts, farmers, and cooperative and processor staff, the program highlights best practices in human resources (HR) and safety. To support implementation, the program offers a wide variety of fillable templates, fact sheets, self-assessments and manuals.

The fillable templates cover topics from job applications to performance reviews, training logs and more. All templates are available to download for free in English and Spanish. Dairy owners and managers are encouraged to tailor the templates to their specific needs. State legal fact sheets, which are updated annually, summarize applicable state laws and regulations for dairy farms in plain language. FARM WFD offers reference manuals for both HR and safety topics, in addition to a fully customizable employee handbook.

Retaining labor is critically important, and prioritizing efforts to implement best practices in HR and safety can help with that. “FARM Workforce Development gave us an opportunity to review our existing safety and training protocols and identify areas we could strengthen,” Newmont Farm owner Will Gladstone said in a FARM Impact story. “It’s been helpful for both managers and employees to have written documentation of safety procedures and employee resources.” Gladstone shared his experience as a FARM WFD participant in FARM’s Impact Story feature, which aims to highlight farmers’ experiences with the program.

Additionally, FARM WFD uses an on-farm second-party evaluation tool to help farms learn about HR and safety management best practices, identify which practices will be most useful to implement on their farm, and track improvement over time.

The program area launched Version 2 in July 2024, updating the evaluation tool used to voluntarily assess and encourage adoption of HR and safety best practices on-farm. In Version 2, the evaluation was restructured to better group questions of similar themes and contains seven additional questions to further strengthen the tool surrounding communication and performance management. 475 Version 2 evaluations were completed in 2024 through 13 participating cooperatives and processors.

The FARM WFD program continues to update its suite of resources, including annual updates of its state legal fact sheets.

To learn more about FARM WFD, visit nationaldairyfarm.com.

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on June 30, 2025.

Federal Regulations Evolving Fast

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

The regulatory climate in Washington is shifting in unprecedented ways, requiring quick responses and an eye for opportunities, NMPF regulation experts said in a Dairy Defined podcast released today.

The pace of evolution is “Intense, insane,” said Clay Detlefsen, NMPF’s Senior Vice President for Regulatory and Environmental Affairs. “It changes daily. It’s full of unknowns, and it’s moving forward at an absolutely crazy pace. We don’t know what to expect tomorrow or the next day or the day after that, but things are indeed happening.”

Joining Detlefsen to discuss what dairy farmers, processors and consumers should anticipate, from milk labeling to MAHA, are Dr. Jamie Jonker, NMPF’s Chief Science Officer, and Director of Regulatory Affairs Miquela Hanselman.

To hear more Dairy Defined podcasts, you can find and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music under the podcast name “Dairy Defined.”

Preparing the next generation

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

By Theresa Sweeney-Murphy, Senior Director, Communications & Outreach

This year marks a major milestone for the National Milk Producers Federation’s (NMPF) National Young Cooperators (YC) Program as it celebrates its 75th anniversary. Young dairy farmer leaders from across the country are gathered this week in Washington, D.C. to engage with lawmakers, advocate for key dairy issues and continue building the next generation of cooperative leadership.

The multi-day program is a hallmark event for NMPF, providing young cooperators with in-depth insights into current policy issues from subject matter experts. Attendees also receive training in relationship-building with lawmakers, message development and effective communication strategies — skills they then have the opportunity to apply during meetings with members of Congress and their staffs on Capitol Hill.

Drawing from their own experiences, young cooperators will highlight the effects of policy action — and inaction — on their farms during meetings with policymakers. A key priority this year is pushing for agricultural labor reform that provides dairy farmers with access to a stable, legal workforce. They will also advocate for the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, underscoring the nutritional benefits of whole milk for children, and champion efforts to expand reliable export markets for U.S. dairy products.

Now celebrating the 75th year, the YC Program remains firmly rooted in the cooperative values that bring the dairy community together. Since 1950, it has helped shape the next generation of leaders by offering year-round leadership training and educational opportunities for young farmers looking to step into greater roles — on their farms, in their cooperatives, and throughout the industry.

This week’s event reinforces the critical role the YC Program plays in dairy farmer advocacy. As challenges grow more complex, having well-prepared, informed young leaders at the table is more important than ever. Their voices bring real-world insight to policy discussions, ensuring that dairy farmers’ needs are heard and understood by policymakers. Their involvement is essential to shaping sound policies and securing a strong future for the industry.

Beyond this week’s Dairy Policy and Legislative Forum in Washington, the YC Program has more in-person events planned for 2025. Educational sessions will be held October 2 and 3 at World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis., followed by the annual Leadership and Development Program, taking place November 9 to 12 in Arlington, Texas.

The National YC Program is open to dairy farmers under the age of 45 who own or work on a farm that’s part of an NMPF member cooperative. To stay informed about upcoming events and opportunities, click here and check the National YC Program box. You can also reach out to your cooperative to learn more about getting involved.

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on June 9, 2025.

Lab-Based Dairy is So Boring

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

It’s strange to admit, but as more and more consumers react negatively to the lack of nutrition and marketing honesty in plant-based and lab-based beverages, news of their falling sales, struggling stock prices and consumer skepticism has become almost … boring.  

But being boring is one thing. Being Bored is another level entirely. Let’s explain. 

Two years ago, when “lab-based” milk seemed to be promising some more of the same mislabeling craziness that plant-based dairy imposters have been foisting on consumers for decades, an over-hyped beverage called “Bored Cow” entered the marketplace.  

Promising “animal-free dairy milk,” (which, per FDA standards of identity, is impossible), Bored Cow played the same trick as other purported lab-based milk imitators — it fermented one dairy protein (out of hundreds of milk’s total chemical components), added a bunch of other stuff to it, and decided to market it as milk, complete with spurious sustainability claims and promises to “fix our food system,” etc.  

NMPF complained to the FDA, and, as has been customary with FDA for the past several decades when it comes to dairy terms, very little happened. But another place where little seems to be happening is … Bored Cow’s sales. Once the hype died down, did Bored Cow just … wander away? 

A look at the company website, tryboredcow.com, returns a message saying “Sorry, this store is unavailable.” Same thing happens to the website of one of its two corporate parents, the venture-capital-established Tomorrow Farms. Bored Cow’s Instagram page was last updated last August.  

Perfect Day, the other entity from which Bored Cow was spawned, at least still has an active web presence. The company is active enough, in fact, to get sued by the Organic Consumers Association for peddling Bored Cow as milk when it’s actually, as alleged in the lawsuit, about 87% fungus, among other things. (You can see why they’d prefer to associate with dairy, with limited fungus demand among American beverage consumers.) According to an article detailing the suit, Bored Cow has become a bit of a distraction for Perfect Day, which in 2023 pivoted to building business-to-business relationships with large consumer products companies and didn’t want to focus on brands. 

Multiple requests for comment from Perfect Day were not returned. Bored Cow doesn’t seem to have any contact information.  

To be sure, Bored Cow still seems to exist. Target and Walmart are selling it, and UberEats says it can deliver you some in an hour if you’d like. But if this is the lab-based revolution, it’s a bit underwhelming. Sales of real milk are up, dairy investment is booming, and the return to milk (and the turning away from alternatives) is genuine. Proving yet again that reports of the death of dairy a few years ago were greatly exaggerated. Now it seems like it’s the one-time wave of the future that’s on life support.  

An interesting thought. But it’s also one that’s become so obvious that’s it’s getting a little … you know.   

NMPF Applauds Senate Committee for Advancing Whole Milk Bill

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

The National Milk Producers Federation applauded the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry for supporting by voice vote the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, a vital piece of legislation for increasing student milk consumption and nutrition access. 

The bill’s markup today is a critical step in passing this bipartisan legislation, which has already been approved at the House committee level.   

“The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act is about making informed, science-backed decisions that prioritize the health and future of our children,” NMPF President and CEO Gregg Doud said. “We’re grateful that this common-sense legislation has received such strong support from both sides of the aisle. We commend Senators Marshall and Welch for authoring this bill in the Senate and advocating passionately for its passage, as well as Chairman Boozman and Ranking Member Klobuchar for their bipartisan leadership in moving the bill through committee. Passing the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act will allow more schoolkids to access essential nutrients in their diets, and that’s something everyone can get behind.”  

This bill, if signed into law, would provide schools with the option of serving whole and 2% milk. Whole and 2% milk are the most consumed varieties at home, more satiating than lower fat varieties and offer the same 13 essential nutrients including protein, calcium and vitamin D.  Currently, school meal rules in effect since 2012 only allow 1% and fat-free milk options.  

The bill is sponsored by Sens. Roger Marshall, R-KS, Peter Welch, D-VT, Dave McCormick, R-PA, and John Fetterman, D-PA. In addition, Chairman John Boozman, R-AR and Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar, D-MN, both strongly supported the bill as did many other committee members from both parties.  

The House of Representatives is considering similar legislation led by House Agriculture Committee Chairman GT Thompson, R-PA, and Rep. Kim Schrier, D-WA. The House bill was approved by the House Education & the Workforce Committee with bipartisan support Feb. 12, and it now awaits floor action. The full House passed a similar bill in 2023, but that year’s session expired before Senate approval.  

With today’s successful committee vote, the next step is floor action in both the House and the Senate. NMPF has a call to action on its website urging dairy advocates to speak up on the bill.

Taking On EU Dairy Malfeasance is Welcome — and Long Overdue

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

President Trump’s tariff measures toward trading partners across the world sends a clear signal to trading partners: The United States is no longer going to stand for shenanigans that lead to unlevel playing fields. That’s especially true in dairy. And within dairy, the European Union stands apart as an example of shenanigans in action. If the president’s tariffs spur the negotiations that place their policies within the realm of reality and fairness, the effort will be worthwhile.

American farmers have long voiced their concerns about the unfairness of the EU’s agricultural trade policies, arguing that these policies create significant challenges for them in the global marketplace. Some facts: In 1980, the US exported $12 billion in agricultural products to the 27 current members of the European Union. That $12 billion was the high-water mark until 2023. We’ve gone almost 45 years bouncing in a range of between $6 billion and $12 billion annually to the European Union — accounting for zero export growth since the Carter administration. Meanwhile, the trade deficit in agricultural products is growing, and gaping: $23.6 billion at last count.

Now look at dairy trade. The U.S. imports $3 billion in dairy from the European Union — and exports $167 million. We export more cheese to New Zealand, a major dairy exporter with a population of 5 million people — or roughly the same population as Ireland, Slovakia or Norway.

That’s pathetic.

Why do we have that gap, and how do we close it?

From more than 30 years of dealing with EU agriculture, the answer to the first part is simply this: The EU is reflexively protectionist in agriculture. The U.S. “beef hormone” case against the EU, which dates to the 1980s, is a classic example: The U.S. won.  The EU has never complied.

The EU Farm to Fork Initiative, all the certification requirements and protocols, everything that requires processes in the EU, all of it is designed to keep ag imports out. The EU approach to common cheese names like “parmesan” — making it impossible for Americans to sell their products as what they actually are — is a crowning example of the creative, and inappropriate, use of non-tariff barriers to protect their market.

And none of that even touches on the subsidies the Europeans lavish on their farmers, and the schemes they use to push their products at low prices on global markets, ensuring that U.S. farmers repeatedly struggle with unfair competition as they build their own relationships via high-quality, affordable products.

Any effort to close this gap is long overdue; the Trump administration’s strategy starts this process and squarely puts the focus — and the pressure — where it should be: On Brussels, which has artificially created this lopsided trade imbalance and needs to take tangible steps to level the playing field.

In my three decades of experience, the European Union has proven impossible to deal with in agriculture — but if the president stays steady and forceful on EU tariffs, we may finally get their attention. We have no problem with the president hiking tariffs on EU imports higher to drive them to the table — the current ones are a bargain for the EU, considering the highly restrictive barriers the EU imposes on our dairy exporters. And if Europe retaliates against the United States, the administration should respond swiftly and strongly in kind by raising tariffs yet further on European cheeses and butter.

Much has been written about the president’s aggressive stances toward traditional allies such as the EU, questioning the wisdom of taking on our “friends.” But with friends like these, who needs enemies? Relationships are reciprocal, and fairness is the foundation of goodwill. There has been no fairness from the EU toward American farmers — for decades.

All that said, hope remains that American dairy can finally make real progress through productive negotiations. This administration can help achieve a level playing field for U.S. dairy producers by tackling the EU’s numerous tariff and nontariff trade barriers that bog down our exports. It can create a brighter future for U.S. dairy trade — and build hope among farmers who know that the administration is listening to them, and now the world as well.

As the administration moves forward with negotiations, we’re hoping for swiftly negotiated, constructive outcomes. We will do whatever we can to help break this decades-old logjam that has hurt U.S. farmers and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. The field is wide open, and we are poised for progress.

Gregg Doud

President & CEO, NMPF

 

Dairy exports: opportunity in uncertainty

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

By Shawna Morris, Executive Vice President, Trade Policy & Global AffairsShawna Morris Headshot

The first 100 days of the second Trump administration have been rapid and unconventional on trade policy. Every U.S. dairy producer needs exports, and tariffs may bring new leverage to negotiate expanded U.S. dairy export market access opportunities. Yet, retaliation from China and Canada has weighed heavily on the short term, creating urgency for action to help offset the losses. The May 12 announcement of a preliminary deal between the United States and China to de-escalate tariffs is an important step in the right direction.

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) are working together to ensure U.S. dairy farmer priorities are front and center in the ongoing negotiations. Working closely with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and USDA, NMPF and USDEC’s joint trade policy team is leveraging its status as confidential trade advisers to advance new market access opportunities and ensure that barriers to dairy trade are prioritized.

This advocacy isn’t abstract. Preparing for President Trump’s April 2 rollout of a “Fair and Reciprocal Trade” plan, NMPF and USDEC developed a comprehensive road map for the U.S. government aimed at unlocking new dairy market opportunities. NMPF’s trade advocacy has focused on four areas: securing new market access, eliminating nontariff trade barriers, resetting the imbalanced U.S.-European Union (EU) trade relationship, and quickly resolving tariff retaliation by China and Canada.

Securing new market access is essential for ensuring the long-term growth and competitiveness of U.S. dairy exports. NMPF is prioritizing engagement with markets including Vietnam, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, and others where U.S. exporters face tariff disadvantages relative to competitors from the EU, New Zealand, or both. Ahead of the administration’s “Fair and Reciprocal Trade” rollout, NMPF submitted 45 pages of comments detailing the specific dairy products and markets where exporters would stand to gain the most.

NMPF has identified a long list of nontariff measures that also hamper trade, including unscientific certification requirements, monopolization of common cheese names like “Parmesan” and “Feta,” and lengthy manufacturing facility approval processes that are thinly veiled attempts to block trade. Tariffs become a secondary issue when U.S. dairy plants and products can take years to be approved to even reach a market in the first place. These challenges aren’t just bureaucratic red tape — they directly determine whether U.S. dairy products can compete globally.

The most egregious example is the EU’s use of nontariff barriers, which has driven the nearly $3 billion U.S.-EU dairy trade deficit. The EU has long employed tariff and nontariff measures to block U.S. dairy imports while enjoying relatively streamlined access into the United States for its own products, particularly cheese and butter. Contrary to what the Europeans claim, this blatant protectionism has nothing to do with history, pricing, or quality advantages — it is completely political. NMPF urges the U.S. government to use all tools, including the tariff leverage, to rebalance the deeply one-sided trade relationship.

Even in the face of retaliation against U.S. dairy producers, NMPF has pushed for strategic engagement to de-escalate conflicts and secure new opportunities for dairy. Both Canada and China, the United States’ second- and third-largest dairy export markets, respectively, have rolled back retaliatory measures in recent weeks, with China reducing retaliation from 125% to 135%, down to 10% to 20%, and Canada implementing an exemption process for dairy imports used as inputs for further processing.

This proactive approach is rooted in decades of experience. While the trade policy landscape continues to change day by day, NMPF is doggedly advocating for global trade opportunities that bring real, tangible results for U.S. dairy producers.

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on May 19, 2025.

Whole Milk Legislation has 60% Chance This Year, Sen. Welch Says

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act has a 60% chance of becoming law this year, with congressional momentum building along with consensus that whole milk in schools is the best option for schoolkids, Sen. Peter Welch, D-VT, said in a Dairy Defined podcast released today.

“This is one of those things where, if we get it on the floor, and get the cooperation of leadership, we get the votes,” he said. “This is one of those areas of rare bipartisanship that we have right now.”

Welch, the ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee’s rural development subcommittee, is a Senate co-sponsor of Whole Milk for Healthy Kids, which passed the House of Representatives in 2023 and this year is advancing in both chambers. The legislation would restore the ability of schools to offer whole and 2% milk as options.

Welch also serves on the Judiciary, Finance and Rules committees, touching on agricultural issues including immigration and trade.

You can find and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music under the podcast name “Dairy Defined.”

NMPF Lauds Dairy Policy Provisions in House Ag Reconciliation Package

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

The National Milk Producers Federation today lauded the inclusion of critical resources in the House Agriculture Committee’s reconciliation proposal that would boost the agricultural economy and provide farmers certainty.

“We commend Chairman GT Thompson and committee members for advancing important investments that will help support and create opportunities for dairy,” said Gregg Doud, president and CEO of NMPF. “We will work with lawmakers to advance these provisions through Congress, knowing that dairy is well-served by what the House Agriculture Committee is approving.”

NMPF is pleased that the bill extends the Dairy Margin Coverage program through 2031, providing dairy producers with much-needed continuity. The package also bases the program’s production history calculation on a farmer’s highest production year out of 2021, 2022, or 2023, an update that better reflects recent on-farm production levels. The bill also funds mandatory USDA dairy processing plant cost surveys every two years, which will better inform future make allowance conversations. Finally, it includes long-term resources for important trade promotion, conservation, research, and animal health programs.

The legislation, which is expected to be approved today by the House Agriculture Committee, will ultimately be folded into a broader budget reconciliation package that will include an extension of current tax policies, among other areas. NMPF supports House Ways and Means Committee language to make the Section 199A tax deduction permanent, which will allow dairy cooperatives to continue to either passing the deduction back to their farmer owners or reinvesting it in their cooperatives.

“Whether it’s risk management or tax issues, the stakes are enormous for Congress to get the policy right in this legislation,” Doud said. “House committees have done good work this week to start major elements of this bill on the right track for dairy farmers and the cooperatives they own.”

Milk is Defined by Safety

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

In an era of evolving food policy (and the worries that entails), it’s good to know that food-safety safeguards that have existed for generations are still doing their jobs, no matter what the anxiety of the month may be.

Milk is Exhibit A of the tried-and-true in action. The Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO) regulating all Grade “A” milk is more than a century old, making sure that a product that caused 19th century panics has been a trusted source of premium nutrition well into the 21st. The PMO is pretty mundane: Its exhaustive rules and regulations make a great cure … for insomnia. And that’s the point. By outlining in extensive prescribed detail how milk must be handled, tested, and then mandating those procedures, the PMO goes to great lengths to ensure the safety of milk – so you don’t have to worry about it.

Here’s a taste of the required testing milk must go through, from farm, to processing plant, to store shelf. And these are the minimum requirements – many dairy farmers and milk processors go above and beyond, to protect the health of consumers and their own success in the marketplace.

According to the PMO:

Within two hours of milking, all milk must be cooled to 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) and refrigerated properly until a milk truck driver arrives, in a vehicle that’s highly regulated to ensure proper cleanliness. When the driver arrives at a farm to pick up milk, the driver takes or picks up samples from each farm’s bulk milk tank (and/or silo) and holds those in a cooler for further follow up if any anomalies are identified in subsequent testing.  When the tanker arrives at the processing location, each tanker is tested for animal drug residues as required by the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO). And if the results find antibiotics (specifically, beta lactams), the milk is rejected and removed from the animal and human food supply. b. Tankers are also tested for somatic cells to assess quality and tested for added water, which is illegal, and would render the milk adulterated. In addition, the milk’s temperature is checked to ensure it’s been stored properly and inspected for any adverse physical signs, such as off color or odor.

Once the milk arrives at a processing plant, the PMO requires every milk truck to be tested for beta lactams  before it enters – (If this is starting to seem obsessive, note that it brings results: In 2024, only 1 out of every 17,083 tankers, less than six thousandths of one percent, tested positive for a drug residue, the lowest ever.)

Once all those hurdles have been surmounted, milk enters the plant and receives the gold standard treatment: Pasteurization. For more than 100 years, pasteurization has been keeping consumers safe from threats that ranged from tuberculosis (second only to cancer as a cause of death in 1925) to bird flu, which pasteurization renders harmless in milk, according to repeated tests taken last year when the virus was identified in dairy cattle.

Here’s how pasteurization works. Under HTST (High-Temperature Short-Time) pasteurization, milk is heated to a specific temperature, typically at least161°F (71.5°C), though many plants go even higher. The heated milk is held at the specific temperature for a set time — typically no less than15 seconds for HTST. This allows the heat to effectively kill harmful bacteria.

Alternative methods, like vat pasteurization, use lower temperatures (145°F or 63°C), but for longer periods (30 minutes). In general, the higher the temperature, the longer the milk’s shelf life. Ultra-pasteurized milk, for example, is heated to temperatures around 280°F (140°C) for a short time, resulting in longer shelf life. And Ultra-High Temperature, which is processed and packaged in a commercially sterile environment, may go even higher (e.g., 285°F or 140°C), resulting in shelf-stable milk.

In every case, the combination of temperature and time allows the heat to effectively kill harmful viruses and bacteria. And keep milk safe.

After pasteurization, the milk is then rapidly cooled down, usually to around 40°F. This prevents further bacterial growth and maintains the milk’s quality.

Pasteurized milk also undergoes its own tests — pasteurized milk goes through a phosphatase test to confirm efficacy. What’s a phosphatase test, you ask? The phosphatase test, specifically the alkaline phosphatase (ALP) test, is used to determine if milk has been properly pasteurized. ALP is an enzyme naturally present in raw milk but is inactivated by heat during pasteurization. ALP activity in milk indicates insufficient pasteurization or contamination with raw milk after pasteurization.

From there, the milk is packaged and sent to the store.

If all this seems overly detailed, technical and mind-numbingly repetitive, well, that’s the point. Milk is a product of proven safeguards and processes, backed by state and federal regulations and an industry that doesn’t want to be associated with food scares and illness outbreaks. Do outbreaks still occur? Unfortunately, yes. Nothing in life is 100 percent foolproof, and fools, and mishaps, will always exist. But given the billions of pounds of milk produced each year, such outbreaks are exceedingly rare. And when they do happen, regulators and the dairy industry learn and do better.

Dairy is defined by many things. Quality, nutrition, nourishment across the globe. But safety is fundamental to all of these. That’s been true in the past. It’s true today. And it will be tomorrow, thanks to the farmers, testers and workers from farm to fork, working to make it so.