By RENEE TROUTMAN  /  Special for Farmshine

STEVENS, Pa – “Are we doing anything? Are we moving the needle?” asked Jackie Behr, 97 Milk’s marketing manager. Behr gave an update on a slew of whole milk successes at the 97 Milk meeting on Tuesday, March 25 at the Durlach Fire Hall before a room of dairy farmers, agribusiness representatives, and government staffers. “Do I feel like we’re moving the needle? Yes! Yes, I do,” Behr asserted.

After many decades of general dairy consumption trending downward, the tide has turned with whole milk sales showing a 4.5% increase to date since 2019, which is the year 97 Milk began after Nelson Troutman painted the first “bale board” proclaiming whole milk to be 97% fat free.

“Why are people moving to real milk? Why are they moving to dairy?” Behr asked. She explained that there is a movement such as farm to table, eating whole foods, and people concerned about what is in their food. “And milk is milk. There isn’t a long list of ingredients attached to it,” she said.

As 97 Milk stands at the forefront of changing milk consumption and industry trends, the 501c3 non-profit organization is also bridging consumers to understand what it is that dairy farmers do on their farms. “People want to learn and you just have to answer the question,” Behr said. “People want to know that you care about your cows. Our social media posts reflect that in addition to the power of what real nutrition whole milk has for consumers.”

“One question we get a lot is, ‘Why are calves in hutches?’ They think you’re being mean. Until you take the time to explain why you do what you do, and then they understand,” Behr said. “If you don’t say what the real reason is, guess who is saying the not real reason!”

Chris Landis, 97 Milk secretary, reflected on a recent group he hosted to tour his farm that included an aspiring vegan. Upon arrival, she was defensive and cynical, but after listening to Landis as he showed his farm she openly engaged with him. “One of the last things she said to me was, ‘This is nothing like what I see on the internet.’

“We’re quite content to sit on our farms and do what we love to do, make a living, and raise our families, but we’re not willing to step out of our comfort zones and do what we need to do,” said Landis. “It could be a 30-second conversation with someone that could make a ripple effect.”

97 Milk’s main outreach to consumers is through the website 97milk.com and social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram. The website has seen upwards of 1500 users a month, while the social media analytics show nearly 4 million people have been reached since the initiation of the 97 Milk accounts. The reach through social media spans nearly every continent on the globe with the majority being in the state of New York where the 97 Milk chapter of Ann Diefendorf, Jay Hoyt, and Daune Spaulding invest incredible amounts of time promoting whole milk mostly through direct community involvement.

Behr emphasized the connection of community events as a primary driver of increased online interactions. “Right after these events I see spikes on the website and social media. Consumers are going to the website and social media to learn more. These community outreaches are really big to bring traffic to the website.” While community events have been a secondary approach, this personal engagement is what really spurs the growth of 97 Milk.

What makes the work of 97 Milk extraordinary is that everything is completely grassroots and organic. There has been no paid marketing to get people to the website. However, Behr wants to change that. “I’d like to see 97 Milk reach a larger audience through search engine optimization (SEO) marketing but it’s not something that I can do or have the time to do,” Behr told the group.

There would also be a cost for this next level of marketing or even branching out into social media advertising. Behr would like to have a sponsor to help 97 Milk grow in this way or someone who specializes in this type of marketing who might volunteer for 97 Milk. Utilizing YouTubers or social media influencers for the cause of whole milk is also intriguing to Behr.

Behr’s reflections on the past six years showed that the work by volunteers of 97 Milk is indeed moving the needle, and moving it at an energetic and exhilarating rate.

Consumers fall in love with whole milk when they are told the basic truths.

“I started asking my friends questions, asking why they were choosing not to have whole milk,” Behr said. “I’d ask them to tell me the fat percentage in whole milk. They’d say 30, 80, 15. I like to think I have smart friends, but I was baffled by their answers! Nobody knew whole milk was just 3.25% fat.”

Behr continued: “When we sat down on that Day One meeting six years ago, realizing people I know in my group are so disconnected, even though they lived around dairy farms all their lives, but they were still missing it. And that’s in my friend circle! What friend circle do you have that is having those same thoughts? That’s why we do what we do.”