New Zealand Schoolchildren Reject Free Cows Milk!

New Zealands largest company, "dairy" monopoly Fonterra started giving out "free cows milk in schools" as a PR stunt.   Barely any negative coverage gets out about the New Zealand dairy industry, of how 89% of rivers in my region are "poor" or "very poor", and of the astonishing cruelty inherent to the dairy industry.A recent report about tonnes of cows milk spilt into the already poor Mataura River.  On the Southland's History page of the Invercargill Vegan Society website, you can look through slaughterhouse industry books about how one Alliance slaughterhouse was built and currently runs dumping its blood, "effluent" and other goodies directly into the formerly gorgeous Mataura River.

"Around 150 electricity customers were without power in Mataura, Southland early today after a milk tanker hit a power pole around 3am.

Between 12,000 and 15,000 litres of milk spilled into a drain which led directly to the Mataura River, Environment Southland said.

Fortunately, from an environmental perspective, the lower reaches of the river were in flood overnight, so the milk would have been diluted immediately and was unlikely to have any lasting environmental impact."

Thank goodness the river was so full, although adding that level of cows milk is still a disaster.

As the mega company felt mounting media pressure though, they relaunched cows milk giveaways in schools, to get future customers hooked, and to look like they cared about poor school children.

Being photographed kissing babies hasn't worked out so well for them though!

As New Zealand newspapers report:

"Free milk has left a sour taste in the mouths of some of Northland's schools and a large numbers of their students have dropped out of the pilot programme which was launched on March 19.

After an enthusiastic take-up, some schools have seen nearly a 90 per cent decline in the number of kids receiving milk each day, with many blaming the taste of the ultra heat treated (UHT) milk.

"The kids wrote letters to Fonterra thanking them for the milk, but fewer were drinking it because of the taste it left in their mouth," said Dave Bradley, Wellsford School principal.

The school said half the 240 children initially drinking the milk have opted out.

At Kaiwaka nearly 70 of the school's 86 children were drinking the milk. It is now down to 10.

"I am beginning to wonder if kids are so used to sugar that they don't want to drink milk anymore," said principal Barbara Bronlund."

Maybe its simply offputting to drink milk once you're old enough to talk? :-)


"Holly Walker, spokeswoman for children from the Green Party, said trying to use a 1930s era scheme for modern children was flawed, though she also acknowledged the scheme was not very popular when Labour started giving free milk to schoolchildren from 1937. The policy ended in 1967.

"There was a lot of nostalgia about the programme, but there were flaws - the milk would get warm in the sun and be awful by the time they drank it. Now we've come full circle."

My parents both remember "milk monitor" duty, each day a child would be let out of class to handle the wooden or metal boxes with the cardboard cartons of cows milk.  Apparently each day there was a cows milk delivery, and no refrigeration, it was all dumped somewhere?  "No refrigeration", sounds like we were really......not up to date......as a nation!  And as the calf food warmed up...the smell was horrible!

"Fonterra said the decline was expected and the numbers are now stable.

"It started with a big hiss and a roar and now the numbers are naturally settling down," said Craig Irwin, Fonterra's business manager for beverages."


"Fonterra's website says the pilot will be used to test logistics, such as installing fridges in schools, arranging for the milk to be delivered and putting recycling programmes in place for the packaging, which has also unexpectedly proved a problem.

Several schools said the 250ml cartons were difficult for young children to finish and the folding and disposal of the containers was time consuming.

"My staff are busy teachers and it's not easy managing the milk if you have half-empty boxes," said Adrian Smith, principal of One Tree Point school. "It is smelly."

Those practical difficulties led Riverview Primary School to withdraw from the programme."
Also reported on by Robert Guyton, "Another Problem for Fonterra"
I for one blame Vegan activists spreading their evil message of respect for all animals in our public libraries!!!  And targeting the young with colourful children's books too!!!