Milk for “Growth”: Global and Local Meanings of Milk Consumption in China, India, and the United States

Abstract

Whereas milk production and consumption and the genes that allow for milk digestion throughout life are strongly variable across populations, historically only a minority of human groups valued milk as an important component of local foodways. By the early 21st century, however, milk consumption has become globally normative, and a spectacular rise in intake has been documented in countries such as China and India. Meanwhile, in the United States, consumption has declined markedly, especially among children. In this article, I argue that milk has been able to succeed in India and China by being positioned as a food with special qualities that enhance physical growth, which in turn serves as a powerful metaphor for individual and national power and wealth. Simultaneously, milk is being repackaged as a salve for the problems of modernity in the United States. Milk's unique history in each country provides an interpretive framework within which these meanings emerge, and milk's current success in local foodways depends on traditional modes of processing.

Notes

1. Indeed, the 2008 melamine scandal in China, which was but one in a series of scandals involving contaminated milk and milk-based baby formula, caused domestic milk sales to plummet. But the cost of imported milk was prohibitive to many, and consumption of domestic milk is now up to 80% of its previous levels (Huei 2009). Industry analysts have described this as a “speedy recovery is beyond anyone's expectations,” but more than anything else it reveals how well-established milk has become as part of the daily diet of many middle-class Chinese citizens.