Another One Of America’s Oldest & Largest Dairy Companies Files For Bankruptcy

January 31, 2020

By
Arjun Walia

In Brief

• The Facts:Borden Dairy Co., one of America's oldest and largest dairy companies, just became the second major milk producer to file for bankruptcy in the last two months.
• Reflect On:How did we not know about the environmental destruction that animal agriculture was
  causing? How did we believe that milk from a cow was healthy for a human being? How have we ignored the suffering and trauma of billions of animals?

The demand for dairy continues to plummet as Borden Dairy Co., one of America’s oldest and largest dairy companies, recently became the second major milk producer in the country to file for bankruptcy within the past couple of months. This comes a short time after Dean Foods, another one of America’s largest milk producer, if not the largest, also filed for bankruptcy.

Americans, and people all of the world for that matter, are not drinking as much cow’s milk as they used to. Brands that seem to be growing and having success are the ones that are now offering dairy-free options. Oat milk, for example, saw U.S. sales rise 636% to more than $52 million over the past year, according to Nielsen data. Sales of cow’s milk dropped 2.4% in that same time frame.

Chief Executive Officer of Dean Foods, Eric Beringause, stated: “We continue to be impacted by a challenging operating environment marked by continuing declines in consumer milk consumption.” He’s right, the demand for cow’s milk has dropped nearly 50% since 1975.

Borden filed for bankruptcy because it cannot afford its debt, pension obligations and the many other costs that come with running such a company. It has a total of 3,300 employees, 22 percent of whom are covered by a collective bargaining agreement. According to CNN Business,

The company said it also has been hurt by broader industry trends, including a 6% drop in overall US milk consumption since 2015. Borden noted that more than 2,700 family dairy farms went out of business last year, and 94,000 have stopped producing milk since 1992. With the wholesale cost of milk rising due to fewer suppliers and retail milk prices weaker due to lower consumption, the margins for milk processors like Borden have suffered, the company said in its filing.

What’s The Reason?

So, why is the dairy industry collapsing? Well, it seems to be for a number of reasons. One is the fact that the dairy industry is extremely cruel.  Cows are forcefully impregnated so they can produce milk, and their babies are taken from them for beef so the milk can be drained from the cow so humans can drink it. This causes tremendous heartache. Cows are living in poor conditions where they constantly suffer both emotionally and physically. Furthermore, they can often be abused by workers, but the conditions they live in on factory farms is already seen as abusive to many.

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Environmental reasons are another factor. We are waking up to the fact that 80 percent of the Amazon rainforest destruction is the result of grazing animals for meat and dairy production. It’s one of the main sources of environmental degradation and pollution on our planet. It is destroying our Earth, and the waste is polluting our environment and waterways at an alarming rate. 90 percent of soy used, which is also creating massive amounts of deforestation, is used for animal feed, not humans. So, animal product consumption is clearly the biggest factor when it comes to deforestation and environmental degradation.

This isn’t to say that ‘vegan’ products could not be produced in a more environmentally friendly manner, but nothing really compares to animal agriculture.

Last but not least, there are multiple health concerns when it comes to animal foods in general. This has been brought to the attention of even more people with the recent documentary, The Game Changers, which made a lot of noise. It’s on Netflix, I suggest you check it out.

I also recently published an article that goes a little more in-depth when it comes to human health and a plant-based diet. If you’re interested in the science, you can find some of it there for starters.

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The Takeaway

We are a race in its infancy, and with the growth of the population as well as massive economic growth, we’ve forgotten what makes human beings so special. These qualities are compassion, empathy, love and understanding, and without them our race will not move forward and furthermore, we will destroy our planet. With this massive economic growth, and corporations capitalizing on opportunities to make massive amounts of profits by any means necessary, it’s great to see more and more people clue in to what we are doing to other sentient beings, and our home, mother Earth. We are living in a time where human beings are experiencing a massive shift in consciousness, and this is made evident by examples like this, as well as in many other fields. Collectively, we are manifesting a new reality, stepping out of an old paradigm and into a new one.