Americans are drinking nearly 40 percent less milk than they did when Nixon was in office, with whole milk consumption dropping 78 percent over the same period:
What’s causing the plummet? Replacement, mostly. Americans are still drinking the same amount in beverages as they did back in the 1970s, only they’re now spreading that fluid intake across a much larger pool of beverage options. “We essentially went from milk, carbonated soft drinks (CSDs), coffee, and juice in the 1970s to a myriad of alternatives available today,” a report (pdf) published last year by CoBank notes. The “we” in that construction might as well be replaced for “youth,” because it’s America’s young that are letting all that milk sour. The most pronounced declines from the late 1970s to the mid 2000s are in the 2-11 year old, and 12-19 year old demographics.
As you may remember, this worrying trend is almost certainly to blame for Alabama’s plunging marriage rate.
The Dish 