From Local to Global: How Milk Became a Universal Food

To grasp the truest picture of history, we must first acknowledge a crucial, and somewhat counterintuitive, fact: long before milk itself became a widely consumed beverage, the production of dairy-based products in the Western world had already grown exponentially.A key underlying reason may well be that, from the 1850s onwards, milk acquired a new identity as an industrial commodity.Gail Borden had already demonstrated that canned dairy products, whether condensed milk or milk powder, possessed the portability and shelf stability that fresh liquid milk so notoriously lacked.As his manufacturing process gained widespread adoption, other patented methods soon emerged across the globe. Determined experimenters sought to refine his techniques by tweaking ingredients—most notably sugar—in the quest to produce superior goods.

In 1885, Britain pioneered the development of milk powder, which gradually entered the commercial market as a staple commodity. Initially marketed as a supplement for infant feeding, it later became a foundational ingredient in the manufacture of chocolate and confectionery. Across North America and Switzerland, the dairy industry had transformed into a highly lucrative enterprise, with output reaching staggering levels. The popularity of canned dairy products, however, sparked several pressing questions, the foremost being: what exactly were consumers using these canned goods for? Were most buyers simply pouring it into their coffee? Were mothers devising their own specialised recipes for infants using these tins? And what proportion of sales were driven by culinary purposes? Taken together, these myriad possibilities suggest that processed dairy products paved the way for the eventual commercialisation of liquid fresh milk—a commodity now regarded as safe in quality and priced within reach of the average household.In any case, this surging demand for dairy products fundamentally reshaped the industry itself, forging a modern understanding of cattle farming that became particularly evident during the First World War.

A significant driving force came from North America, where dairy farming had expanded from the Midwestern states into the Far West, encompassing areas such as Oregon and Washington. The rapid expansion of condensed milk manufacturing largely reflected the dairy industry’s growth at the time. Between 1890 and 1900, the total volume of condensed milk on the US market nearly quintupled, rising from 38 million pounds to 187 million pounds; following the outbreak of the First World War, this figure briefly surged to 875 million pounds. Throughout the conflict, sustained demand from European markets continued to push sales upward. By 1919, the US was producing over two billion pounds of condensed milk and 44 million pounds of milk powder. Yet even these staggering figures accounted for barely half of the total milk supply. Although the number of dairy cows per capita in the US increased from one to five, milk production had already been surplus to requirements since 1900.

With the emergence of corporate structures on the sales and distribution end, and under the combined influence of various forces, production experienced explosive growth. Large corporations proved highly successful during the restructuring of capitalist economies in Western Europe and the United States towards the end of the nineteenth century. Milk processing became one of the most successful branches of the food industry at the time. Benefiting from the reach of global food export networks, diverse products could cross oceans and enter markets that had previously remained inaccessible. Major companies utilised new advantages such as inexpensive long-haul transport and refrigeration technology to launch fierce competition on the global milk market. Equally significant is the fact that international commercial capital began restructuring overseas production facilities. Swiss interests began establishing a presence in Norway and Spain; American entrepreneurs set their sights on Switzerland; and Swiss immigrants started transforming the industry’s shape in the American Midwest. This new model of producing milk for large corporations disrupted the established landscape of the dairy industry and upended the conventional view of milk as a known, local commodity.

For instance, by 1920, the Borden Milk Company had already ranked among “the largest manufacturing enterprises in the United States and Canada.” Even at the time, Borden’s vertical integration appeared remarkably modern: the company owned and operated thirty-one condensed milk plants, eleven “raw material supply factories,” eleven tinplate packaging plants, two confectionery factories, two malted milk plants, and two milk powder plants. Its subsidiary, Borden Farm Products, operated “eight certified dairy farms, 156 rural bottling plants and receiving stations, and seventy urban pasteurised milk plants and distribution branches,” supplying the majority of fresh milk consumed in New York City, Chicago, and Montreal.

The picturesque landscapes around Vevey, Switzerland, with hillsides dotted with charming brown cattle, served as the inspiration for German-born Henri Nestlé in the 1860s. Capitalising on the growing fascination with novel infant formula, Nestlé transformed this local character into a product of wide appeal (and medical approval). Combining powdered milk from Swiss dairy with roasted grains, it was first distributed through pharmacies throughout Europe. In 1868, Henri told a business partner: “Believe me, launching the same invention across four nations at once is no trivial matter.” By 1873, his goods had crossed two oceans, reaching sixteen countries and territories including Mexico, Argentina, the Dutch East Indies, and Australia.

Nestlé founded his brand with earnest conviction and grand ambitions, set on producing affordable Swiss milk. “It is not the wealthy who buy the most of our milk,” he remarked. (Throughout the company’s history, Nestlé never softened his blunt maxim or abandoned his profit-driven calculations.) “We must keep the price of infant food within reach of every household. Selling two tins for 3.6 Swiss francs is far preferable to selling one for 2 francs.” These elegantly designed containers featured an illustration of a mother bird feeding her newly hatched chicks in a nest. Agents once suggested the founder adopt the famous cross on the Swiss flag as the brand’s trademark, but he flatly refused. Instead, the bird formed the central motif of his “coat of arms”; after all, the name *Nestl* in Swiss German literally means “little nest.” Here, personal identity triumphed over national symbolism. In an era bubbling with nationalistic fervour, Nestlé’s self-interest may well have proved more commercially advantageous. After 1871, residents near the company’s factory began accusing Nestlé of driving up local milk prices. In a country that regarded cheap, abundant milk as a natural right, such allegations were far from trivial.

Fierce competition was brewing in the nearby hills, indicating that pressures were already quite palpable as early as the 1860s. The England Swiss Condensed Milk Company, based in Cham, Switzerland (a town not far from Zurich), took its name not because its founders were English or Swiss, but because those two nations represented the most promising markets for its products. Charles A. Page, born in the United States, possessed a deep understanding of Swiss agricultural practices, gained during his tenure as US Consul in Zurich. Alongside his brother George, he spent time studying milk condensation techniques in Borden, USA, before returning to Switzerland to establish the company in 1866. Their enterprise proved highly successful: their most lucrative clients were in Britain, which offered an added bonus for international trade, given the UK’s extensive network of colonies alongside the home market. Their least enthusiastic market was Switzerland, where consumers strongly preferred fresh, natural dairy products.

The Page brothers demonstrated a unique adaptability that companies like Nestlé, with their narrow product focus, could not rival until the turn of the century. Milk is a seasonal commodity, and its fluctuating yields periodically led to surplus raw materials at factories. In response, the brothers gradually began to diversify their product range. In some regions, they utilised surplus milk to produce cheese and other innovative dairy products. These sounded less like offerings from the Victorian era and more like modern beverages from the Starbucks age, such as coffee milk, cocoa milk, and chocolate milk. After four decades marked by both turbulence and profitability, the England Swiss Condensed Milk Company merged with Nestlé during the corporate consolidation wave of 1905. From that point onward, Nestlé embarked on producing the milk chocolate that would later become a household name.

The imperial era around the turn of the century fostered a vast network of markets for canned milk. As part of the British Empire, Canadian farms and factories supplied consumers both near and far. Based in Nova Scotia, the Reindeer Condensed Milk Company served local fishing and logging communities, where the men working there eagerly craved condensed milk for their coffee cups. Mining camps in Alaska and the Yukon also placed orders for the product. Canadian factories also shipped their milk to other distant corners of the British Empire, with traces of condensed milk consumption found in cities as far-flung as those in South Africa and Japan. (The Australian market had already been claimed by Nestlé and, by the turn of the century, had become the company’s second-largest.) By 1912, Cuba had become the largest buyer for Canadian firms, as the local tropical heat made dairy production extremely difficult. Globally, the demand for canned milk products never waned, forcing dairy herds across North America and Europe to continually increase their yields.

Yet it was not only North American and European herds that bore the impact: condensed milk factories even sprang up in the Far East, utilising milk from cows transported specifically for production. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Japan was deeply influenced by Western diets and culture, paving the way for the development of its domestic dairy industry. In particular, the introduction of coffee-drinking habits provided Japanese consumers with a primary avenue for encountering milk, revealing a substantial gap in dairy demand. By 1890, Japan had begun dedicating scientific research to advancing its domestic condensed milk industry. Meanwhile, a familiar pattern emerged: in 1897, following Japan’s occupation of Taiwan from China, officials insisted the colony be equipped to mirror the home islands; consequently, they transported dairy cattle from Japan to Taiwanese soil. (Nevertheless, milk-drinking was not a widespread habit in China at the time; indeed, the national dairy herd even declined following the Second World War.) Concurrently, as the domestic Japanese market for condensed milk became saturated, mainland China and the islands of the South China Sea emerged as consumption markets for Japanese products after the First World War. Fragmentary evidence suggests these canned goods were likely ultimately consumed as infant food.

Meanwhile, dairy farmers themselves were seeking ways to win market share by producing affordable, portable, high-quality foods through industrial means. Cheese factories pioneered a model for mass-producing cheese and distributing it in bulk to urban markets via commercial agents. In reality, this model was far less industrial than it sounded: although the equipment was capable of large-scale output, profitability depended more on economies of scale than on mechanisation. Factories purchased milk and cream from individual farmers for standardised processing, allowing them to sell large volumes of uniform dairy products—a format city distributors preferred. New York dairy farmers first adopted this system in the 1840s, with tremendous success: before long, their products had unseated their biggest rival on the London market, British cheese. Their goods held up well in terms of quality across the mass market, compelling farmers across the Atlantic to shift their livelihoods towards liquid milk. Operating on the same principle, butter factories sprang up across Britain to soak up surplus raw supplies. In certain regions, these factories were combined with pigsties; livestock fattened on the churning by-product—what we now know as buttermilk—grew exceptionally stout.

The transformation of milk into a mainstream commodity was driven by the practical experimentation of entrepreneurs and the patterns of international migration. This period marked a watershed moment in the history of consumer culture: during the final decades of the 19th century, several highly successful milk-based products hit the market. Malted milk—a blend of malt sugar and powdered milk—was among them, offering adults a nourishing food with a consistency reminiscent of infant cereal.

Around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the rise of iced beverages and chocolate confectionery created new opportunities for milk to be repositioned and marketed under fresh guises. ‘Maltisa’ was one such innovation, manufactured by “slicing vacuum-dried malted milk into strips, coating them in chocolate syrup, allowing them to dry, and then wrapping them in foil”. As disposable incomes among affluent urban populations grew, 19th-century food history saw a profound and significant convergence between the demand for milk and for sugar. Sugar consumption skyrocketed across Europe and the United States in the mid-1800s: in Britain alone, annual per capita consumption climbed from 17 pounds in 1844 to 60 pounds by 1876. Alongside the introduction of powdered and solid bar chocolates—innovations demanding intensive processing—milk emerged as the indispensable star ingredient in these widely coveted goods, naturally driving demand to new heights.

The arrival of another product renewed the immense pressure on milk production: ice cream, hailed as ‘one of the most successful dairy products of all’. The modern history of ice cream reveals a fascinating paradox that draws our attention to the process of commodification explored in this chapter. Despite its long and multicultural past, the product ultimately adopted the characteristics of American culinary tradition, cementing its status as an ‘American’ commodity.

What made American ice cream so successful? Perhaps it was simply that they grasped the secrets of large-scale production long before others. In the 1840s, Nancy Johnson invented a hand-cranked churn. This device only required a tub of ice and a handful of salt surrounding it to make home production straightforward. The technique produced a noticeably ‘lighter and softer’ texture, as vast quantities of air were whipped into the cream as it froze. Accounts suggest that for various American ice cream products, this ‘whipping’ and ‘aeration’ process ‘can increase the final volume to 1.8 times that of the original cream’. Fittingly, the manufacture of ice cream also mirrored a defining national characteristic: boundless abundance.

Yet, its triumph was not down to product quality or volume alone; American ice cream owed much of its success to ingenious marketing strategies. The sales tactics of American street vendors are particularly noteworthy. By the 1820s, the playful cry of ‘I scream, Ice Cream’ was already echoing through the streets of New York. At the dawn of the 20th century, a new kind of mass-market demand emerged. We owe a great deal to the legendary Syrian immigrant Ernest A. Hamwi, one of the figures credited with inventing the ice cream waffle cone. At the 1904 St Louis World’s Fair, he served ice cream in waffle cones, making it uniquely portable.

Several other innovations swiftly followed, vying for a share of the North American market: in 1919, chocolate-coated ice cream bars made their debut; in 1920, the ‘Good Humor’ brand launched bars with assorted fillings and a crunchy chocolate shell laced with nuts; by 1923, ice cream served in Dixie Cups had already captured the public imagination. Margaret Visser observed that the phonetic ring of the word ‘Dixie’ carried connotations of patriotism and musicality, sounding vibrant, pristine, and chic. Visser offers a captivating narrative of American ice cream history, portraying a consumer culture that seamlessly fused dairy with the expansive spirit of capitalist enterprise.

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