The rise and fall

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Thanks to GoDaddy for sponsoring this video. Head to https://godaddy.yt.link/5UJyDyL to start using GoDaddy Airo AI Builder with 50 free credits. Today’s hat sponsor is Hire With Near. I’m a co-founder, and we built it to help companies hire great offshore talent in Latin America for specific, valuable roles they’ve struggled to fill in the U.S. Learn more at https://girdley.com/near Milk used to be one of the most dominant products in America. In this video, we break down the rise and fall of milk, why milk consumption collapsed, and what happened to the U.S. dairy industry. Get the 2-minute cheat sheet for this video → https://girdley.com/youtube 👇 SUBSCRIBE for more business breakdowns https://www.youtube.com/@Michael-Girdley?sub_confirmation=1 ------------------------------------------------------------------ ► Get my weekly letter to business owners: essential insights to run, grow, and stay ahead in your business → https://links.girdley.com/newsletter-yt ► For sponsorships or inquiries please reach out to: Contact@girdley.com ► Do you have a hat I should wear in a video? Send it to us: Contact@girdley.com ► Free events on all things small business: https://links.girdley.com/lectures-yt ► Deep dives on businesses for sale: https://www.youtube.com/@AcquisitionsAnonymousPodcast ► Follow me on Twitter/X: https://x.com/girdley ------------------------------------------------------------------ For decades, milk was treated as one of the healthiest and most essential products in America. The dairy industry had government support, school lunch mandates, nutrition messaging, and some of the most recognizable marketing campaigns in the country. At its peak, milk was not just a product. It was part of the American story. But the real story behind milk’s decline is much stranger than most people realize. This business breakdown follows the industry from early safety scandals and pasteurization to federal policy, school lunch rules, heavy lobbying, and the long collapse in per-capita milk consumption. The video also explains what happened to major dairy companies like Dean Foods and Borden, and why lactose intolerance, changing health beliefs, soda, cheese, retailer power, and consolidation all helped reshape the market. What looks like a simple consumer trend is really a story about incentives, propaganda, and industrial scale. If you’ve ever wondered what happened to the milk industry, why Americans stopped drinking milk, or why dairy is still so heavily produced even as fluid milk consumption keeps falling, this is a useful case study in how industries rise, peak, and slowly lose relevance.