Got Flu? Time for the USDA to Stop Milking an Unsustainable Industry

The Biden administration is poised to provide nearly $100 million in taxpayer-funded handouts to the dairy industry as it faces a widespread outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza among cattle herds.

This move is not only fiscally irresponsible but also reckless from a public health standpoint. It's time for our government to stop subsidizing agribusiness: an unsustainable industry that got us into this mess in the first place. Large dairy corporations should have to pay to stop the virus’s spread, and Big Ag should bear the consequences of the many crises it has exacerbated – including bird flu.

Over the past few months, bird flu has spread to dairy cattle in at least nine states and infected at least two farm workers. Alarmingly, the virus has been detected in pasteurized milk that has reached grocery store shelves. One in five milk samples nationwide tested positive for bird flu, with rates even higher in areas with infected herds.

The USDA has done nowhere near enough to understand the scope of this outbreak and protect public health. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has made clear he’s not going to hold the dairy industry accountable for quelling the spread, saying "we can't necessarily mandate a sample be given, but we're obviously willing to accept samples that are voluntarily provided." This hands off, self-regulatory approach to such a potentially dangerous pathogen is extremely reckless.

But it's no surprise considering Vilsack's deep ties to the industry he's tasked with regulating. After leaving the Obama administration, Vilsack raked in nearly $1 million a year as a revolving door lobbyist for Big Dairy. He has consistently prioritized agribusiness interests over those of the American public. We cannot trust him to address this crisis when his primary objective is to protect dairy industry profits.

The dairy industry has been in sharp decline for decades as consumers become more aware of its many negative impacts. Milk consumption has plummeted 42 percent since 1975. There are less than half as many dairy farms as there were in 2003. Rather than continue to bail out this floundering industry, it's time to accept reality and let the market set its fate.

From a health perspective, dairy does far more harm than good. Milk and cheese are among the top sources of artery-clogging saturated fat in the American diet, contributing to heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure risk. Regular dairy consumption has been linked to breast and prostate cancer. The majority of the global population cannot even digest lactose, a fact that has led some to highlight the “dietary racism” of a federal school lunch program that pushes dairy milk on children. The industry's overuse of antibiotics critical to human health raises more concerns.

Despite decades of government and industry propaganda attempting to convince us otherwise, the truth is that humans need cows’ milk as much as we need dogs’ milk. And there are no nutrients in dairy that we can’t get from healthier sources.

Dairy is also an ecological nightmare. It generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all foods other than beef and lamb, causes significant water and air pollution, and requires massive amounts of land, water, and feed crops.

Then there is the animal cruelty inherent in dairy production. Cows are kept constantly pregnant and lactating. Calves are traumatically separated from their mothers at birth so that we can drink their mothers’ milk. Especially in today’s mega-dairies, these sensitive animals endure physical and psychological torment before being sent to slaughter when their productivity declines.

Now, the spread of avian influenza through dairy herds makes milk consumption even less appetizing. The World Health Organization warns that bird flu has a 52 percent human fatality rate, while the European Food Safety Authority highlights that should the virus spread to people, “large‐scale transmission could occur” due to lack of immunity. Yet our government is failing to treat this crisis with the gravity it deserves. Instead, it’s propping up an industry whose milk factories are, as scientists have warned, “the most likely epicenter of the next pandemic.”

It's time for the Biden administration to stop doing the dairy lobby's bidding and start enacting agricultural policies that serve the greater good. If the dairy industry receives any government subsidies, it should only be to help small farmers pushed out by Big Dairy find alternative livelihoods. Or, better yet, it could help the industry close down the riskiest, most polluting mega-operations – a solution modeled in Sen. Cory Booker’s proposed Farm System Reform Act.

Rather than use taxpayer dollars to resurrect an unsustainable, archaic industry, let’s turn this crisis into an opportunity to build a safer, more resilient food system.