Who brought milk to our tables?

Did you know? According to research published in *The Lancet*, two-thirds of the world’s population suffer from some degree of lactose intolerance, experiencing symptoms such as bloating and diarrhoea after consuming milk.

If this is the case, why has milk become such a ubiquitous daily beverage across the globe? When exactly did those glasses of tempting, pure white milk start appearing on the tables of urban residents in Europe and North America?

●In a mid-20th century advertisement titled ‘A New Story of Milk’ by a milk packaging company, milk is depicted as a food consumed by all of humanity throughout history.

In reality, while the production of dairy products has a long history, drinking fresh milk is entirely a ‘modern habit’. The Wellcome Collection in London recently curated an exhibition titled ‘Milk: Health, Politics and Power’, using over 100 exhibits to trace how milk became synonymous with health and nutrition, and how political propaganda combined with commercial interests to drive its widespread adoption.

Each exhibit tells a story about milk. As consumers and caregivers, these narratives have been told to us—both consciously and unconsciously—ultimately shaping our perceptions of milk.

●A poster from the first half of the 20th century showing the British government strongly recommending milk for infants and young children. Image source: Wellcome Collection

I. From ‘Toxic’ to ‘Pure’

From the beginning of the 19th century, the United States entered a period of rapid urbanisation, with large numbers of people, including women, migrating from the countryside to the cities. Upon arriving, women were swept up in another historical wave: the professionalisation of women’s roles. This created a childcare dilemma: who would feed the children? Middle-class wives faced the same problem; although they did not need to balance a career with family, in an era that prized large households, social etiquette required them to dedicate their time to hosting guests and managing the home, naturally leading them to seek substitutes for breast milk.

Local brewers and dairy farmers sensed a commercial opportunity. They began using waste mash and effluent from breweries to feed sickly cows. According to calculations by the New York Times at the time, cows fed on this ‘swill’ could produce 5–25 quarts (4.7–23.6 litres) more milk per day than those fed on hay. This product became known as “swill milk”.

●Investigative reports of the period used illustrations to depict sickly cows crammed into filthy, narrow spaces. Image source: Online

Once produced, swill milk had a peculiar colour and flavour, so producers would add chalk, eggs, flour, and plaster of Paris to mimic the texture of natural milk.

In 1907, the New York Times reported that poor-quality milk was causing the deaths of thousands of infants every year.

A similar situation unfolded in 19th-century London. At the time, milk preservation techniques were still rudimentary. To meet the urban demand for fresh milk, cows were mostly kept in shops located in city alleys. Because the milk was milked and sold immediately, it was easily contaminated by dust and bacteria. Tuberculosis was frequently spread through milk, and the extremely high infant mortality rate of the era was also attributed to the milk supply.

●Cattle dealers in the alleys of London in the 1820s, and dust-proof milk canisters introduced by dairy companies in the 19th century; the floral motifs on the canisters suggest the link between milk, nature, and purity. Image source: The British Museum

It was not until 1912 that the UK agricultural commissioners established the National Dairy Research Centre and introduced the ‘Clean Milk Production Code’. Simultaneously, the dairy industry was determined to modernise and upgrade through scientific principles of hygiene and efficiency. Throughout this process, the production, testing, and processing of milk became increasingly standardised and scaled up.

●The ‘Clean Milk Production Code’ set out regulations for bovine health, farm site selection, and cleaning procedures.

●Equipment used by dairy workers in the 20th century. White uniforms represented a scientific approach to operation, while transparent glass bottles symbolised the cleanliness and purity of the milk.

As the demand for milk continued to climb, dairy processing and distribution gradually became concentrated in the hands of a few industry giants.

For instance, Express Dairy, established in 1864. The exhibition presents excerpts from a 20-minute promotional film by Express Dairy from the 1950s. The film opens with a scene of a milkman in whites and a housewife in a white dress, illustrating the company’s entire operation—from sourcing and testing to sterilisation, bottling, and transport—in an attempt to restore consumer confidence in the safety of milk.

● A glimpse of an Express Dairy promotional film from 1954. At the time, they operated their own branded trains as well as dedicated railway milk vans.

During the consolidation and modernisation of the dairy industry, ‘cleanness’ emerged as a pivotal concept, becoming inextricably linked with food safety. The knowledge and means to choose safe, clean food became a modern lifestyle choice and a symbol of social status. Consequently, the white middle class became the quintessential consumers of milk.

● Left: A 1950s milk advertisement. The depiction of a wealthy white family suggests the Eurocentrism of dietary norms at the time. Right: An advertisement from a mid-20th century British campaign to promote milk, which successfully popularised the drink among the relatively lower-income white working class and young white-collar professionals.

II. Milk and Nutrition

As early as the 1920s, the National Council for Public Health in the UK recommended that housewives allocate 27% of their total food budget to milk, making it the largest single expense. Over the following half-century, with war acting as a catalyst and bolstered by scientific research and government campaigns, milk became synonymous with nutrition. The conscription process during the Second World War exposed widespread malnutrition among the British public, prompting scientists to investigate the link between diet and disease. Due to its rich combination of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and fats, milk emerged during this period as the ideal food and became a cornerstone of wartime rationing.

● Under the wartime rationing system, the weekly allowance for two adults included milk, sugar, bacon, cheese, butter and chocolate, with milk allocated at 7 pints (approximately 3.3 litres). Source: Imperial War Museum

From the onset of Second World War rationing, milk became a vital component of the British welfare system. Starting in 1940, the government distributed dried milk to mothers and children, a practice that continued until it was phased out in 2006.

Looking back at the dietary guidelines published by the British government in the mid-20th century, milk was the ubiquitous ‘star’ food; it was touted as providing energy and protection for adults, while being deemed essential for the physical development of children.

● Dairy advertisements from the mid-20th century. The image on the left compares animals that drank milk with those that did not, intending to demonstrate the ‘miraculous’ effects of milk. The image on the right compares the gait of two young girls: the girl who drank milk is radiant and spirited, while the one who did not cannot even bring her feet together.

As personal health became closely intertwined with national prosperity, choosing a nutritious food like milk to build a healthy physique signified not only a modern lifestyle, but also that one was a responsible citizen.

Furthermore, opting for nutritious milk implied that one was a competent caregiver.

In the late 19th century, the rise of paediatrics and new parenting methods influenced by the ‘scientific feeding’ movement profoundly altered every aspect of a mother’s life. Weight became a primary metric for assessing child development, and breast milk began to be strictly monitored.

Experts at the time believed that the quality of breast milk varied, whereas infant formula was a scientific product engineered to match the nutritional composition of breast milk, making it the ideal substitute. Consequently, it replaced fresh milk as the critical line of defence for childhood nutrition.

● Promotional materials for the milk powder brands Glaxo and Gerber.

Formula milk advertisements from this period frequently featured branded growth charts for infants, and some even illustrated an inverse correlation between the sale of formula and the decline in infant mortality… In essence, they were all striving to present their products as indispensable to a child’s “healthy development”.

Three: Is milk still the perfect food?

Having toured the exhibition, it becomes clear that the image of milk as pure, nutritious, and a symbol of modern progress is a construct of various forces over the last century. This was driven by commercial interests, as well as political power, media discourse, and the field of nutrition. Having deconstructed it in this way, is milk still the perfect food?

In reality, controversy surrounding milk has persisted in recent years. Nutritional studies indicate that many leafy greens, nuts, and tofu can provide calcium—some even in higher concentrations than milk—meaning that milk is not the only way to meet calcium requirements. Other research suggests that excessive milk consumption may actually contribute to osteoporosis.

Furthermore, critics have targeted the increasingly intensive and industrialised dairy industry from the perspectives of environmental protection and animal welfare. Improper management of livestock waste on intensive farms leads to environmental pollution, while high concentrations of ammonia and nitrogen pose a threat to biodiversity in the surrounding areas.

The conditions under which the cheap milk sold in Western supermarkets is produced are far from the lush, green pastures depicted on the packaging; instead, they are the cramped pens of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). As the documentary *Cow* illustrates, these cows exist solely to produce milk; once their lives have been exhausted by overproduction, they are seen as having no further value.

● The documentary *Cow* attempts to portray the miserable lives of cows in industrial farms from the animal’s own perspective. Image source: Documentary official website

Leaving the exhibition, I wondered what the endless stream of visitors took away with them. Would they realise that consumption is far more than a simple individual choice? Would they begin to consider the social and environmental impacts of their purchases? More specifically, would they care about where their milk comes from? For my part, I am more convinced than ever in my own choices: I will be more mindful of the source of my milk, opting wherever possible for local, minimally processed options that prioritise animal welfare and employ environmentally friendly practices from production to packaging. And, as with any food, there is no need to place blind faith in its nutritional benefits, nor to consume it in excess.

References

1. Harvey Levenstein, Fear of Food: A History of Why We Worry about What We Eat[M], University of Chicago Press, 20122. Alex Renton, Milk: A Local and Global History by Deborah Valenze – review, the Guardian, 2011-7-30

3. Linda Geddes, Everything you need to know about lactose intolerance, NewsScientist, 2015-7-23

4. Tyler Moss, The 19th-Century Swill Milk Scandal That Poisoned Infants With Whiskey Runoff, Atlas Obscura,2017-11-27

5. Catherine McNeur, Taming Manhattan: environmental battles in the antebellum city, Harvard University Press, 2014

6. Storhaug CL, Fosse SK, Fadnes LT. Country, regional, and global estimates for lactose malabsorption in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet. Gastroenterology & Hepatology. 2017;2(10):738–746.

7. https://www.yfanefa.com/record/24288

8. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30909722/

9. Taming Manhattan: environmental battles in the antebellum city

Foodthink Author | Lu Wanlin

PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at SOAS University of London, and holds a Master’s in Food Anthropology. She is a researcher at the SOAS Food Studies Centre and has previously worked for ecological agriculture social enterprises and food-tech investment funds. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening and cooking.

Unless otherwise stated, all photographs in this article were taken by the author at the exhibition

Editor: Zeen

I. From ‘Toxic’ to ‘Pure’

II. Milk and Nutrition

Published by Foodthink