Somerset dairy farmer urges Congress to bring whole milk back to schools

A Somerset County dairy farmer told a U.S. House subcommittee on Wednesday that whole milk should be offered again in American schools.

“It is unfortunate what has happened in the schools and cafeterias where we have tried to push this skim and 1 percent milk,” said Glenn Stoltzfus of Pennwood Farms near Berlin. “We’ve lost a generation of folks that used to drink fluid milk. I think it’s nature’s most perfect beverage.”

Stoltzfus spoke before the House Small Business Subcommittee on Rural Development, Agriculture, Trade and Entrepreneurship at the invitation of U.S. Rep. John Joyce, R-Chambersburg.

Responding to a query from Joyce about milk offerings in schools, Stoltzfus said bringing whole milk back would help the dairy industry but will take time to make an impact.

“I definitely agree with you (that) getting whole milk back into schools would be a tremendous advantage to us as dairy farmers,” he said.

Stoltzfus said children who don’t like skim milk or 1 percent will be hard to convert to whole milk because “you create habits when you are very young, and as you age, you tend not to change those habits.”

Prior to the start of the 2018-19 school year, the state Departments of Education and Agriculture informed local school districts of a federal rule change that allows for the use of 1 percent flavored milk in schools without a waiver. The joint letter also asked schools to choose Pennsylvania dairy producers and vendors.

The letter was part of a larger strategy by the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf to promote the Pennsylvania dairy industry, which has been suffering from depressed prices and declining demand since 2014.

The USDA interim final rule for Child Nutrition Programs marks a shift away from the Obama administration practice of limiting schools to skim milk, but still does not address the issue of whole milk.

Another thing hurting dairy farmers, he said, is the presence of milk substitutes such as soy milk in the dairy case.

“Years ago, you used to go to the beverage case in supermarkets and a very large percentage of it was milk or milk products,” Stoltzfus said. “And now we are in competition with all kinds of juices and other things, including the nut juice or whatever you want to call it, that is being called milk, that does not come from a lactating animal.”

Stoltzfus said the government should enforce regulations regarding the proper labeling of dairy products.

“I think it would distinguish a difference between milk, which comes from a lactating animal, and those products or those drinks that do not,” he said.

In January, Joyce and U.S. Rep. Anthony Brindisi, D-N.Y., wrote a letter to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, asking him to “crack down on plant-based dairy imitators” that use the word milk in their labeling.

Pennsylvania is the nation’s sixth-largest dairy producer. Dairy constitutes one third of the total agricultural output for the state.