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Letter to the Editor: MILK Act Facts

Per your recent coverage of the Milk In Lunches for Kids (MILK) Act sponsored by Senators Ron Johnson and Pat Toomey, their rationale explaining skim milk as the reason that “milk consumption has notably declined in schools across the country” does not correspond with the facts. As noted by Fox News (June 8, 2018, foxnews.com/us/dairy-farmers-hit-hard-by-declining-milk-demand), three decades ago annual U.S. milk consumption was 247 pounds per person. By 2016 it had dropped to 154 pounds. Everyone in America has been drinking less milk for the last 30 years!

So why would these senators sponsor this bill? If they and/or their staff were unaware of this long-term downward trend in milk consumption, then this is incompetence. If they were aware of this, then they are purposely misleading the people that elected them. But why would they do that? Maybe this is part of the overall right-wing obsession with trashing everything associated with the Obama administration, or, well, follow the money.

Mark Polczynski

Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin