Key dairy producer Arla Foods warns about ‘cancel culture’ in industry, driven by millennial and Gen Z shift to veganism and rising costs
A sense of “feeling ashamed towards dairy in public” is putting some farmers on the brink of calling it quits, a major milk and cheese producer has claimed.
Arla Foods launched a campaign called ‘don’t cancel the cow’ in response to supply and demand pressures, including claims that younger people are avoiding dairy – and more likely to become vegan.
This comes after rising costs for farmers, including for feed, fertiliser and fuel, owing in part to the war in Ukraine, has put pressure on prices for dairy products, with warnings that the price of milk could rise by almost 50 per cent.
Speaking in the Telegraph, Graham Wilkinson, agriculture director at Arla, warned about the impact of social media on younger generations’ consumption of dairy.
The company said they are “feeling shame towards dairy in public”, with around six per cent of British adults now vegan, and younger people more likely to make the switch.
He said that soaring inflation may be “the deciding factor for some farming businesses to call it a day and exit the industry.”
Concerns were also raised about the dairy industry’s impact on the environment, with a 2019 UN report saying three per cent of global emissions were due to it.