"How Growth in Dairy Is Affecting the Environment"

"SHAFTER, Calif. — On a map he keeps in his office, Tom Frantz, an environmental activist and retired math teacher, notes a spot near his home that he says is within a five-mile radius of 10 big dairy farms and about 60,000 cows. This town, in the very fertile but poor and badly polluted San Joaquin Valley in California, is near the heart of dairy country in a state that produces 20 percent of America’s milk.

With industrial-scale farms that each house thousands of cows, the region is also at the center of a global debate about dairy’s impact on the environment. Worldwide, demand for milk products is skyrocketing, particularly in developing economies like China and India, where increasing prosperity and urbanization have brought a growth in Western tastes.

Dairy consumption jumped 32 percent from 1990 to 2005, and is expected to rise an additional 50 percent from 2005 levels by 2050, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization."

Beth Gardiner reports for the New York Times May 1, 2015.