Dairy milk, once maligned, is making a comeback

Dairy milk has come a long way since the "Got milk?" TV ad campaign more than 30 years ago. Though it has seen a significant drop in consumption during the 21st century, as plant-based alternatives became the norm, cow milk might be making a return. Dairy milk has long been ceding market share to almond and oat milk, but dairy milk sales and consumption rose in 2024, an unexpected trend in this sector of the food aisle.

Plant-based alternatives remain ubiquitous in grocery stores, yet statistics show that people are shunning the purported benefits of these alternative milks in favor of real dairy. And the trend may continue in 2025.

How much dairy milk is being consumed?

American sales of dairy milk increased 2% overall in 2024 to $17.1 billion, according to research firm Circana. There was also an increase in the amount of whole milk being consumed and a decrease in plant milk consumption. Whole milk consumption rose 3.2% while plant milk consumption fell 5.9%. Dairy milk increases were also driven by a 17.6% rise in raw milk sales, though the CDC, FDA and "other health organizations advise against drinking raw milk," said the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

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The 3.2% spike is "only the second increase [of dairy milk consumption] since the 1970s," said The New York Times, as dairy milk ubiquity has been steadily falling. For "dairy milk to be growing at all is surprising, much less by these numbers," Circana's John Crawford said to the Times. This "reverses trends that have been in place for decades."

Why is dairy milk seeing a resurgence?

Some of it is cultural. Americans' "ideas of healthy eating were shaped by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 1992 food pyramid, which remained unchanged until 2005," said the Times. Milk was one of the top concerns given that it is high in fat and cholesterol, and "Americans' priorities have shifted toward hydration, protein and healthy fats."

Plant-based milk is also more expensive than dairy milk and has ingredients that place "many of them in the category of ultraprocessed foods, which health-conscious and science-skeptical Americans are learning to avoid," said the Times. This means plant-based milk may not be quite as popular as it seems.

These plant-based products "have been shown to compete with dairy milk," Fred Kuchler, an economist for the USDA's Economic Research Service," said to Delish. "Because sales of these products are comparatively small, sales of them can only explain a small share of overall trends in dairy milk." And while some people may be "drinking less cow's milk on average," consumers are "also eating more of it in dairy products like yogurt and cheese," Kuchler added, noting that dairy product consumption per capita has continued to increase.

Milk's slight rise "likely means that consumers are continuing to catch on to the misleading arguments of plant-based beverage purveyors," the National Milk Producers Federation said in a press release. Consumers "who are seeking truly healthy, sustainable products are rediscovering dairy."

There are also gender issues surrounding milk's resurgence. As "American political culture has renewed its embrace of 'traditional' roles for women, milking is sexy again," said the Times. And milk itself "has often been linked to notions of purity, whiteness, fertility and femininity."