Milk Shaken By Change

Whether it’s on lunch trays or on the farm, milk is making changes as the next millennium approaches.

It’s still the same old white beverage our folks made us drink with dinner. But the milk industry, largely unchanged for decades, faces major renovations, including packaging and pricing.

Instead of the classic paper carton that most school children find on their lunch trays, a plastic pillow pouch filled with milk debuted in Washington Monday.

The first pouches are gracing lunch tables at Central Valley schools early this week. The new packages are designed both to cut waste and encourage children to drink more milk.

“It’s more sanitary, takes up less space and (the milk) seems colder,” said Gary Pannell, food service supervisor for Central Valley schools.

The CV district is in the midst of a project to reduce waste. The first step was switching to stacking disposable trays. The second is the new pouches.

According to Dupont, which makes the pouches, the new containers take up to 70 percent less trash space than paper cartons. They are also recyclable, said Kelly Jones, a Dupont spokesperson.

“The only negative any place that we’ve heard about is that some older students end up using them like squirt guns,” Pannell said.

Schools at Hayden Lake, Post Falls and Newport are also in line to convert to the pouch this spring.

Inland Northwest Dairies, which now occupy the Darigold plant near Francis and Division is supplying the pouched milk.

In other industry news:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is planning to update the federal system for ordering milk, which now guarantees specific regionally-based prices to producers by requiring handlers to pay a minimum price.

The current program has been in place since the Depression, when the government designed a pricesupport system to keep prices up and keep farms from going under even in times of surplus.

Pacific Northwest dairy farmers aren’t terribly eager for the new system. While other regions often don’t produce enough milk to supply residents, the Northwest certainly does.

Still “I don’t know of anyone that’s hollering about it,” said Doug Marshall, spokesman for Darigold, a dairy farmers cooperative.

It could be because they don’t know what they’re in for.

“The actual decision is thicker than the Seattle phone book,” Marshall said. “But in our region it looks to me like it might mean lower prices for producers.”

For consumers, it could also mean lower prices, but “a proportion of the consumer price that is charged at the retail store is quite small,” Marshall said. “It’s not even going to be noticeable.”

Under the 1996 Farm Bill, the USDA is required to change the system this year. The overhaul goes into effect Oct. 1.