By:  Tristan Zuber, Cornell Dairy Foods Specialist, Harvest NY Program

Eleven billion gallons sold in 2014; A per capita increase of 1.6 gallons to 34 gallons since 1976; Water – the world’s most simple beverage, has seen tremendous sales and volume growth over the last thirty years.  Is it the convenience factor, health benefits, packaging, strategic marketing, or refreshability that is creating higher demand for water?  Can these strategies be translated to fluid milk to support higher levels of consumption of nature’s most perfect product?

Casey McCue (NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets), Tristan Zuber (Cornell University), Commissioner Richard Ball (NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets), Cary Frye (IDFA), Maria Knirk (NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets)

Milk – one of nature’s most nutritious foods has a wonderful story to tell.  The dairy industry can truly capitalize on its health benefits to drive consumption and improve health.  Placing limitations on our own industry is a way to discourage innovation and thus consumption. These were some of the topics that were discussed at the 1st-ever Northeast Fluid Milk Summit, cohosted by American Dairy Association & Dairy Council, Cornell Dairy Foods Extension & the Northeast Dairy Foods Association.  The purpose of this event was to bring together fluid milk processors, regulators and supporting agencies to discuss pre-competitive marketing and innovation strategies in the fluid milk industry.

To kick off the event, NYS Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball discussed the importance of both producers and processors working together to solve issues that face the dairy foods industry, including pushing support for farmers to sign up for the Margin Protection Program to reduce financial risks of our dairy farmers.  Cary Frye, Vice President of Regulatory & Scientific Affairs for the International Dairy Foods Association then laid out the groundwork for the forum with an examination of the standards of identity defining fluid milk and resulting product labeling rules.  “The standard of identity has remained unchanged for 73 years,” explained Frye, “but milk products that fall outside the lines of the strict definition of milk can contribute to variety and consumer choice to successfully promote greater use of fluid milk.” Fairlife, Inc CEO, Steve Jones gave a lunch keynote address on strategies employed by his company to begin to disrupt the fluid milk industry.

Cornell University Professor and Co-Director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs, Dr. David Just, spoke about small changes that can be made in the lunchroom to increase the number of kids selecting milk for their lunchtime beverage of choice.  Also presenting from Cornell was Dr. Anna-Thalacker-Mercer, Assistant Professor in Nutrition, who discussed an aging population and prevention of muscle wasting through the consumption of high levels of bioavailable protein, which contains high levels of leucine, such as the protein in milk.  Dr. Carmen Moraru, Associate Professor in Cornell Food Science also discussed new processing technologies that can help drive innovation in milk.

Organic Valley’s Vice President for Marketing, Lewis Goldstein spoke about the growing organic dairy industry and the drivers of organic consumers.  Dr. John Hayes from Pennsylvania State University provided innovative ways of thinking about sensory science to segment consumers based on likability.

Marla Buerk from Dairy Management, Inc and Genevieve Poirier-Richards of MilkPEP discussed new strategies their organizations are taking to support innovation and improve marketability of fluid milk.  This includes the launch of the Milk Life marketing campaign and the Great American Milk Drive to feed America’s hungry.  Steve Ammerman, Director of Public Affairs for the NY Farm Bureau facilitated the program.

Fluid milk processors, regulators and supporting agencies made up over 60 attendees to this forum.  After the presentations, the participants broke out into discussion groups to come up with ideas to further support research and marketing efforts in fluid milk.  These ideas will be compiled into a report and assigned a priority to determine ways we should move forward in terms of research, development and marketing.  Some initial outcomes include marketing to the elderly to support muscle aging, evaluating the potential for milk vending machines and exploring other packaging technologies.

Public-private partnerships can be utilized to drive innovation within the fluid milk industry.  Relying on research and marketing efforts that can benefit the entire industry can further support your company needs internally.  The northeast is in a perfect position to improve fluid milk consumption because of its proximity to the largest appetite in the United States.  Working together with Cornell, American Dairy Association & Dairy Council, and the Northeast Dairy Foods Association will support the development of new products and help improve your marketing and distribution efforts that improve overall consumption. Please contact Tristan Zuber (tjz2@cornell.edu) for further information on the forum.