The Weekly Glean: Moovin’ On Up

This week, let’s talk about milk. The Coca-Cola Company, Inc, LLC, ™, ®, has announced its entry into a new sector of the beverage market. Soon enough, you’ll be able to buy super healthy science milk produced by the same company that one brought you previous super healthy science drinks like Surge. One executive called it, for real, the “premiumization of milk.”

Milk sales are down, consistently, each year, causing the industry to drop half a billion dollars on marketing campaigns. Meanwhile, the price of dairy continues to plummet. Americans are drinking the same amount of purchased, bottled drinks, but with so many options — sports drinks, energy drinks, coffees, teas, sodas, juices — people are buying less milk. And there’s been a bit of a revolt against dairy lately; knowledge of lactose intolerance is increasing, and demand for alternative milks, especially almond milk, is way up.

Enter Coca-Cola’s new milk (is what Coca-Cola marketers are saying to Coca-Cola board members)! It’ll be called Fairlife when it hits stores nationwide sometime next year, and it’s not really designed to compete with your typical store-brand milk (which, according to Bloomberg, holds about a third of all milk sales in the country). Instead, it’s what’s called an “ultrafiltered” milk: it’s passed through a porous membrane to, supposedly, concentrate the good stuff (protein, calcium) and sieve out the bad stuff (lactose, fat). Dairy company Hood has had a version of this milk on the market for awhile, but Coke’s milk is marketed more like a milk alternative than a boosted milk — just look at that packaging! We do, however, regret that Coke’s milk will not be marketed under the name Colk.

IN THE NEWS

Chris Christie vetoed a bill to ban pig gestation crates, and Mark Bittman doesn’t like it.

A program designed to be a safety net for farmers has led to consolidation for huge conglomerates.

Cattle prices are on the rise!

Farmers Weekly is doing a “Britain’s Sexiest Farmer” contest, which we will carefully monitor.

A seed library in Duluth, Minnesota — an important resource for those trying to preserve heirloom plants — is getting shut down by the state department of agriculture.

WEIRD WIKIPEDIA

If you’re like me (and god help you if that’s the case), you’ve wondered why we milk certain domesticated mammals (cows, goats, sheep, camels) but not others. To answer that question, we head to Wikipedia’s thoughtful page on pig milk. Say the editors of Wikipedia: “Pigs are considered difficult to milk. There are 8 to 10 small nipples, each giving little milk. Also, the sow itself is reluctant to be milked, may be uncooperative or become spooked by human presence, and lactating pigs may be quite aggressive … The flavor of pig milk has been described as “gamy”.” Would still drink if it was available!

WEEK IN WEATHER

It’s raining in Southern California, which has approximately 100 percent of all residents of Southern California flummoxed. Will it heal the horrific drought that’s plagued the area? Short-term yes, long-term no.

A typhoon is gathering strength near the Philippines.

This November shattered a bunch of cold temperature records in parts of the U.S., including the Pacific Northwest, Northeast and Florida.

That’s it for this week’s Weekly Glean! Hope you enjoyed. For more agricultural news, parenthetical jokes, and deep Wikipedia dives, don’t forget to sign up to receive the Glean as a newsletter each week.