--- title: Milk Was an American Staple. Now, the Industry Is in Trouble description: America has fallen out of love with drinking milk, which has been tough on dairy processors. But now, the industry has other problems, too. canonical: https://time.com/5762011/america-milk-industry-failing/ author: Alana Semuels article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-01-09T11:02:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:45:06.223Z og:title: Milk Has Long Been a Staple of American Life. But Now, the Dairy Industry Is in Trouble og:description: America has fallen out of love with drinking milk og:url: https://time.com/5762011/america-milk-industry-failing/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9fdc4fb185e5f079/698a0892096a94682d6a78ea/america-milk-industry-failing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: america-milk-industry-failing og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Milk Has Long Been a Staple of American Life. But Now, the Dairy Industry Is in Trouble twitter:description: America has fallen out of love with drinking milk twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9fdc4fb185e5f079/698a0892096a94682d6a78ea/america-milk-industry-failing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Milk Has Long Been a Staple of American Life. But Now, the Dairy Industry Is in Trouble > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=d613e112-7e42-44b7-8fe3-e4fdf60574db&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: This Type of Non-Dairy Milk is the Healthiest, Study Says [Watch (HLS stream): This Type of Non-Dairy Milk is the Healthiest, Study Says](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ns9cEU8s.m3u8) (2:14)  _Published 2018-01-31. Soy milk, a popular alternative option for more than four decades, was found to be the most comparable to cow’s milk in terms of overall nutrient balance_  by [Alana Semuels](https://time.com/author/alana-semuels/)  ## Alana Semuels Senior Correspondent Jan 9, 2020 11:02 AM UTC  3D rendering of milk bottles arranged in a pattern 3D rendering of milk bottles arranged in a pattern Getty Images  by [Alana Semuels](https://time.com/author/alana-semuels/)  ## Alana Semuels Senior Correspondent Jan 9, 2020 11:02 AM UTC For much of the 20th century, [milk](https://time.com/5125580/soy-milk-healthiest-plant-based/) was a simple part of daily life in the U.S., as [farmers](https://time.com/5736789/small-american-farmers-debt-crisis-extinction/) raised cows, milkmen delivered bottles and children chugged it at school. But those days are fading–a fact accentuated by the announcement on Jan. 5 by Borden Dairy, the milk processor with a cheery Elsie the cow on its label, that it is filing for bankruptcy protection. Borden, which said it was impacted by “market challenges facing the dairy industry,” follows Dean Foods, America’s largest milk producer, which filed for bankruptcy protection in November. America has fallen out of love with [drinking milk](https://time.com/money/4443933/americans-arent-drinking-skim-milk-anymore/), as lower-calorie options have proliferated and people are substituting water bottles for milk cartons. Americans each drank an estimated 146 lb. of fluid milk–a category that includes products from skim to cream–in 2018, according to the USDA’s Economic Research Service. That may sound like a lot, but it’s down 26% just since 2000. The downturn has been tough on dairy processors like Borden and Dean, which buy fresh milk from farms and use techniques like pasteurization to create a consumer-safe beverage with a longer shelf life. For the past five years, thanks to technology that increased milk production, fresh-milk prices were relatively low, which meant processors could break even despite shifting demand. But prices began ticking up again last year, squeezing the processors’ already tight margins. “Declining sales in a thin-margin business is not a good recipe for success,” says Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin. (Americans are still eating cheese, butter and ice cream, but fluid-milk processors such as Dean and Borden aren’t big players in those businesses.) Milk processors are also facing competition from big retailers, which have set up their own processing plants. In 2018, [Walmart](https://time.com/5760152/bedbugs-walmart-pennsylvania/) opened a milk-processing plant in Indiana to serve hundreds of stores in the Midwest, taking away approximately 95 million gal. of milk-processing business from Dean Foods. On the other end of the supply chain, [dairy farms](https://time.com/5736789/small-american-farmers-debt-crisis-extinction/) are facing trouble of their own. The low prices that were a boon to processors left small farmers struggling across the industry. The number of Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies in 2019 was up 24% from the previous year. “We’re trying our darndest to hang on,” says Mary Rieckmann, a dairy farmer in Wisconsin whose family has turned to GoFundMe to keep their century-old farm running. Borden, which was founded in 1857, has 3,300 employees and 13 plants across the South and Midwest. The company says it plans to continue to operate as it restructures under court supervision. But if that plan fails, it wouldn’t be the first dairy processor to cease operations. There were 605 fluid-milk plants in America in 1990\. By 2018, there were only 459. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5762011/america-milk-industry-failing/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5762011/america-milk-industry-failing/"},"headline":"Milk Has Long Been a Staple of American Life. But Now, the Dairy Industry Is in Trouble","datePublished":"2020-01-09T11:02:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:45:06.223Z","description":"America has fallen out of love with drinking milk, which has been tough on dairy processors. 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