Milk is the ‘New Oil’…Now World Faces Milk Shortage!
Believe it or not, but in parts of the United States, milk is more expensive than gasoline. There are reports of cows being stolen on Wisconsin dairy farms. Driven by a combination of climate change, trade policies and competition for cattle feed from biofuel producers, global milk prices have doubled over the past two years, says the International Herald Tribune.
“There’s a world shortage of milk,” said Philip Goode, manager of international policy at Dairy Australia in Canberra.
“What is unusual, and somewhat confusing, about the milk boom compared with other booming commodities is that milk is not like oil: You can’t stick it in barrels and stockpile it. It goes sour. Even in powder form, the most commoditized version, milk has a shelf life. As a result, only about 7 percent of all the milk produced globally is traded across borders. The rest is consumed in domestic markets, which are protected by geography and just as often by tariffs or subsidies.”
Photo above: A statue in the New Zealand town of Te Awamutu, where milk is big business. (Courtesy Victoria Birkinshaw for The NYT)
In Hinduism, the cow is a symbol of wealth, strength, abundance, selfless giving and a full Earthly life. More here…
Indian Parliament’s standing committee on science and technology some time ago suggested a part of biotechnology research be devoted to breeding special cows which naturally produce low-fat milk and are engineered to produce less methane to help slow climate change. Green cows, they call them.
“Methane, emitted by ruminant livestock which isn’t efficiently fermenting feed in the rumen (one chamber of a four-chambered stomach), is one of the greenhouse gases believed to be hastening the process of climate change. So, the belching and dung — the source of emissions, to put it politely — are of some concern.
“It is no laughing matter, we are assured. The world has over two billion ruminants, including cattle, sheep, goats. India alone is home to 200 million cows and 90 million buffaloes. Not to forget sheep, goats, camel. All emitting methane.” More here…
