Large Dairy Company Ditches Dairy After 90 Years & Starts Producing Plant-Based Milks Instead

After a 90-year operation, Elmhurst Dairy in Queens, New York has ceased its dairy operation after citing a drastic decrease in customer demand.

Incorporated in the 1920s, Elmhurst Dairy had become established as one of the largest dairy manufacturers on the East Coast of the United States, supplying the metropolitan area of about seven million people.

CEO of the company, Henry Schwartz said the company has been operating at a high cost in recent years and he noted that,

“Pasteurized fluid milk has sort of gone out of style, we are unable to go on without ongoing losses. There isn’t much room for our kind of business. I tried to keep this open because it was my Father’s plant and he asked me to do sWhat Sets ‘Milked’ Apart From Other Nut Milks On The Market?

According to Schwartz, their new line-up has “up to 4 times more nuts per serving than the other leading brands.” This is huge because other nut milk brands have been found to have minuscule amounts of actual nuts in their products and are instead loaded with various fillers, thickeners, and emulsifiers. Milked will be available in four varieties: Almond, Cashew, Hazelnut, and Walnut. Each of these will be made with only raw cold-milled nuts and other simple ingredients. Schwartz guarantees that “no emulsifiers, thickeners, whiteners or frankenfood proteins” are used.

Is There More To This?

If such a large, and well-established dairy farm had to turn vegan in order to stay in business, maybe there is really something to this “trend” after all. Let’s explore some of the facts.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 1 in 6 dairy cows suffers from clinical mastitis out of around 9 million dairy cows. That’s a lot of cows suffering from this disease. Clinical mastitis is a severe udder infection; this infection causes a lot of pus, and you guessed it – that pus absolutely ends up in the milk. The symptoms of the infection show up in the concentration of somatic cells in the milk produced by the cow. In fact, more than 90% of the somatic cells in the infected cows’ milk are neutrophils, the inflammatory cells that form pus. Per spoonful, the average somatic cell count in U.S. milk is 1,120,000 – this is justified because the dairy industry claims this pus doesn’t matter because the milk is pasteurized. So, it’s okay, sure you are drinking pus, but it’s all good because it’s cooked pus. Ew.

Aside from the pus issue, dairy milk coming from generic factory farms has been found to contain an alarming array of hormones including progesterone, oestrogen, cortisone, adrenal seroids, IGF-1 growth hormone, leptin, oxytocin, prolactin, thyroxine, and triidothyronine. These all make sense as they are designed to help nourish a growing baby calf, but in no way are they meant for human consumption. We have our own milk for that, from our human mothers breasts, when we are babies.

And then there is a matter of the treatment of these cows on typical dairy farms in the U.S. and many other countries as well. It’s horrific what goes on. Mother cows are artificially inseminated over and over again, kept pregnant so they can keep producing milk, their calves are taken away from them pretty much at birth, and the males are typically used to supply the demand for veal, while the females face the same fate as their mothers, continuously pumping out babies and milk until they are too old to reproduce. At this point they are sent off to be slaughtered, often never having had the opportunity to set foot on grass.

If that didn’t grab your attention, maybe the overwhelming amount of evidence that shows that quite simply cow’s milk is not ideal for human consumption will. See here for more information. The video below also sums up these sentiments quite nicely.

You Can Avoid All Of This

By simply switching to plant-based nut milks you don’t have to worry about any of the above, and how simple is that? If you have been thinking about cutting animal products out of your diet, switching to nut milks first is a great place to start. Nut milks are also extremely easy to make yourself. Check out this simple recipe below!

Much Love