HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania — When word reached the dairy farmers gathered at the Pennsylvania Farm Show that President Donald Trump had signed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, cheers echoed through the cavernous 24-acre complex packed with farmers, thousands of attendees, and even a few goats, cows, and horses.
No one was more exuberant at the news than Dave Smith, executive director of the Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association, a trade group founded in the late 19th century that supports and advocates the state’s largest agricultural sector: dairy farming.
Less than 10 minutes before the announcement, Smith had been telling me that getting whole milk back into schools was dairy farmers’ biggest challenge and worry. That calm composure vanished as soon as word began to spread.
“This is incredible news,” Smith said. “I, and many others, have been working on the whole milk thing for many, many years, and this is meaningful for us in the dairy industry.”
It is a fight that has been going on since 2015, explained Rep. GT Thompson (R-PA), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee and a tireless advocate for the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act since the United States Department of Agriculture mandated that milk offered in schools be fat-free or low-fat.
“Those guidelines eliminated whole milk from schools,” Thompson said.
“The impact on the American dairy farm was devastating,” he explained, noting that overall U.S. milk consumption has declined dramatically.
“It’s important for the nutrition of our youth. It’s important for a huge commodity, the largest agriculture commodity in Pennsylvania, still is dairy, and it’s all across the nation. And it’s important for rural communities who lost so many businesses when dairy farms left and went out of business because we’ve lost since 2012 two generations of milk drinkers,” said Thompson, who is widely credited with rallying lawmakers on both the left and right to pass the bill on a bipartisan basis.
Thompson said we were basically feeding children chalk water, “which had very little nutritional benefits, if any. And so I’m just thrilled. Thrilled to have the president’s signature was the final stop, and really honored to have his support.”
At the 110th Pennsylvania Farm Show, the Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association reigns supreme, even among visitors who know little about agriculture but never miss its famous, creamy milkshakes. To mark the 250th this year, the group is offering a red, white, and blue milkshake flight.
Smith said the iconic milkshakes have been a Farm Show staple for 72 years, made possible by hundreds of young volunteers. The proceeds go back into the industry’s future, funding scholarships, youth programs, hunger prevention, and Future Farmers of America career development.
Trump signed the bipartisan legislation in the Oval Office surrounded by children and dairy farmers, including a Butler, Pennsylvania, farmer who enables schools to offer whole milk again under the federal nutrition programs.
The measure dovetails with newly released dietary guidelines that once again recognize full-fat dairy as part of a healthy dietary pattern, according to Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Oz, who leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was in the Oval Office for the signing with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and a bipartisan group of lawmakers headed by Thompson. Oz said the change supports both American families and the dairy producers who supply them.
“This has been an event 15 years in the making. There has been generally agreed-upon science that whole-fat milk is actually a relatively healthy thing to drink, especially compared to skim milk,” said Oz.
Oz said science had been distorted in a way that convinced Americans that whole milk was unhealthy. He said the shift may have been well-intentioned, but it ended up driving policy to strip fat out of milk as if fat itself were toxic.
Oz said children don’t like watered-down milk. “Plus, it’s like all sugar because you’ve taken all the fat out. So, then they add chocolate syrup to it to make it palatable, and it is even worse, and calorically, it’s the same as whole-fat milk, so you don’t even get a benefit,” he said.
“I bring this up to say that once the dietary guidelines came out and we took on the big fat lie, it became easier for the Congress to say, well, now that we know that whole fat’s good for you, taken obviously in moderation, then we can actually let kids drink whole fat milk again,” he explained.
The speed of this, Oz said, is a reflection of how the administration tackles problems aggressively and gets to the finish line. “So many times these things start, but they sputter; no one’s got passion behind it.”
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Trump, for his part, appeared to enjoy the moment at the signing, surrounded by the members of Congress who pushed the bill over the finish line, along with families and children.
“Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, whole milk is a great thing,” Trump said at the signing.