Sales of milk as a beverage have plummeted in recent years, to the point that more than half of U.S. adults no longer consume the product most closely identified with the nation’s dairy industry.
The Great Lakes region leads the nation in flavored milk consumption, but 2011’s total U.S. beverage milk sales registered around 6 billion gallons, the nation’s lowest level since 1984, according to the USDA. The agency found whole-milk beverage sales in 2011 stood at less than half their early 1980s levels.