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Milk Money: Cash, Cows, and the Death of the American Dairy Farm
There’s something un-American and illogical about a market system where the price of a product bears no relation to the cost of its inputs. Yet we have lived with such a scheme in the dairy industry for retail milk prices have stayed the same, while milk prices paid to farmers have plummeted. The dairy business is at the heart of the culture and economy of Vermont, just as it is of many other states. That fact meant little to Kirk Kardashian until he started taking his daughter to daycare at a dairy farm a few miles from his Vermont home—a farm owned by the same family for generations, but whose owners were now struggling to make ends meet. Suddenly, the abstractions of economics and commodities markets were replaced by the flesh and blood of a farm family whom he greeted every day.
In the tradition of Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, Kardashian asks whether it is right that family farmers in America should toil so hard, produce a food so wholesome and so popular, and still lose money. This gripping investigation uncovers the hidden forces behind dairy farm consolidation, and explains why milk—a staple commodity subject to both government oversight and industry collusion—has proven so tricky to stabilize. Meanwhile, every year we continue to lose scores of small dairy farms. With passion, wit, and humor, Milk Money shows where we are now, how we got here, and where we might be going.
In the tradition of Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, Kardashian asks whether it is right that family farmers in America should toil so hard, produce a food so wholesome and so popular, and still lose money. This gripping investigation uncovers the hidden forces behind dairy farm consolidation, and explains why milk—a staple commodity subject to both government oversight and industry collusion—has proven so tricky to stabilize. Meanwhile, every year we continue to lose scores of small dairy farms. With passion, wit, and humor, Milk Money shows where we are now, how we got here, and where we might be going.
- GenresNonfictionFoodAdult
278 pages, Hardcover
First published August 28, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 20, 2013
Never would I have believed I'd find this topic fascinating, let alone recommend it to others. This was educational and eye opening. I read my milk carton much more carefully, see another layer to the complexity to the supply chain for our food and generally wonder what else I don't know. I've recommended this book to a lot people and my mother's book club enjoyed it as well.
November 6, 2013
This is the first book I've read re: the dairy industry in America. Now I know why. It's frustrating and terrifying to learn that you've been drinking milk products that probably contain a lot of udder pus, even the organic brands, and that the udder-pus product is both untraceable (to a specific farm or farms) and also within the quality control standards of dairy products in the U.S. The industry is too big, too consolidated. Monopolies in everything but name. Farmers are getting robbed, while corporate big-guns skin the cream off the top, as always. And the wee "family farms" with organic labels we see in stores have long ago been bought up by various corporate giants.
I did learn about "Hudson Valley Fresh," though, a dairy co-op that is having great success by staying away from the corrupt mega co-ops in the U.S. and creating their own small operation that provides farmers with a living wage, provides consumers with a non-poisonous milk product, and provided cows with a healthy and decent life. If people knew what was in their milk (toxicity), and what wasn't in it (milk), they would leave it at the grocery store.
I did learn about "Hudson Valley Fresh," though, a dairy co-op that is having great success by staying away from the corrupt mega co-ops in the U.S. and creating their own small operation that provides farmers with a living wage, provides consumers with a non-poisonous milk product, and provided cows with a healthy and decent life. If people knew what was in their milk (toxicity), and what wasn't in it (milk), they would leave it at the grocery store.
July 12, 2025
Book Review: Milk Money: Cash, Cows, and the Death of the American Dairy Farm (New Edition) by Kirk Kardashian
Rating: 4.5/5
Kirk Kardashian’s Milk Money is a piercing, deeply human exploration of an industry in crisis—one that left me equal parts heartbroken and furious. Blending investigative journalism with personal narrative, Kardashian exposes the brutal economics behind America’s vanishing dairy farms, transforming abstract market forces into a visceral story of resilience and systemic failure.
What resonated most was Kardashian’s dual lens: his proximity to Vermont’s dairy families (sparked by daily visits to his daughter’s daycare at a struggling farm) grounds the book in emotional urgency, while his sharp analysis of price-fixing, corporate monopolies, and climate pressures reveals why even the hardest-working farmers can’t survive. Chapters on immigrant laborers (The Workers) and industrialized animal husbandry (The Animals) are particularly gut-wrenching, challenging romanticized notions of pastoral life. I found myself scribbling notes about USDA policies and dairy co-op scandals—proof of Kardashian’s ability to make complex systems accessible.
The updated edition’s inclusion of bird flu, climate disruptions, and shifting consumer trends (like plant-based milk) adds critical depth, though I wished for more voices from BIPOC or women farmers to broaden the narrative. At times, the prose leans heavily on data, which—while compelling—could benefit from more storytelling flourishes à la Michael Pollan.
By the final page, I felt both enlightened and unsettled. Milk Money doesn’t just diagnose the problem; it forces readers to confront their complicity in a broken system—and consider whether saving small farms is a moral imperative.
My takeaways impressions of this book:
-A Silent Spring for the dairy industry—Kardashian’s exposé will make you rethink every sip of milk.
-Heartbreaking and hilarious by turns—this is the Fast Food Nation of small-scale farming.
-Forget Wall Street; the real economic thriller is in America’s milking parlors.
-Kardashian proves that the death of dairy farms isn’t just about money—it’s about who gets to define ‘American values.’
- If you’ve ever wondered why local milk costs more than gasoline, this book holds the shocking answer.
Thank you to the University of Chicago Press and Edelweiss for the advance copy. Milk Money is essential reading for fans of [The Omnivore’s Dilemma] or [Nickel and Dimed]—a galvanizing call to arms for food justice.
Rating: 4.5/5
Kirk Kardashian’s Milk Money is a piercing, deeply human exploration of an industry in crisis—one that left me equal parts heartbroken and furious. Blending investigative journalism with personal narrative, Kardashian exposes the brutal economics behind America’s vanishing dairy farms, transforming abstract market forces into a visceral story of resilience and systemic failure.
What resonated most was Kardashian’s dual lens: his proximity to Vermont’s dairy families (sparked by daily visits to his daughter’s daycare at a struggling farm) grounds the book in emotional urgency, while his sharp analysis of price-fixing, corporate monopolies, and climate pressures reveals why even the hardest-working farmers can’t survive. Chapters on immigrant laborers (The Workers) and industrialized animal husbandry (The Animals) are particularly gut-wrenching, challenging romanticized notions of pastoral life. I found myself scribbling notes about USDA policies and dairy co-op scandals—proof of Kardashian’s ability to make complex systems accessible.
The updated edition’s inclusion of bird flu, climate disruptions, and shifting consumer trends (like plant-based milk) adds critical depth, though I wished for more voices from BIPOC or women farmers to broaden the narrative. At times, the prose leans heavily on data, which—while compelling—could benefit from more storytelling flourishes à la Michael Pollan.
By the final page, I felt both enlightened and unsettled. Milk Money doesn’t just diagnose the problem; it forces readers to confront their complicity in a broken system—and consider whether saving small farms is a moral imperative.
My takeaways impressions of this book:
-A Silent Spring for the dairy industry—Kardashian’s exposé will make you rethink every sip of milk.
-Heartbreaking and hilarious by turns—this is the Fast Food Nation of small-scale farming.
-Forget Wall Street; the real economic thriller is in America’s milking parlors.
-Kardashian proves that the death of dairy farms isn’t just about money—it’s about who gets to define ‘American values.’
- If you’ve ever wondered why local milk costs more than gasoline, this book holds the shocking answer.
Thank you to the University of Chicago Press and Edelweiss for the advance copy. Milk Money is essential reading for fans of [The Omnivore’s Dilemma] or [Nickel and Dimed]—a galvanizing call to arms for food justice.
May 27, 2019
I didn't know much about dairy farming before this aside from the nature of US-Canada trade disputes and the fact that small dairies are shutting down. Now, I feel like I have a good grasp of the multitude of issues facing dairy farms and causing challenges. Kardashian takes a multifaceted look at factors like animal rights, the environmental impacts, consolidation, government price supports, immigration laws, etc and packages it attractively. The book is exceptionally well-researched, with a focus sometimes on Vermont dairy farmers but also on other geographic areas. He interviews people from all parts of the process strives to represent both sides of debates in a nuanced way. Best of all, Kardashian ends on a more hopeful note, while realistically showing that many factors must come together to make this positive future possible. Policymakers should be reading this!
July 30, 2026
Milk Money is a compelling and accessible look at the economic realities behind America's dairy industry. Kirk Kardashian skillfully blends personal storytelling with thoughtful investigative reporting, offering an insightful examination of the challenges facing family farms and the future of food production.
A thought-provoking read for anyone interested in agriculture, food policy, rural communities, and the economics of farming.
A thought-provoking read for anyone interested in agriculture, food policy, rural communities, and the economics of farming.
May 8, 2013
Ok, first off I want to say that there are a lot of risque products with the same title as this book being sold out there. This is not one of those. This review is for the book about a liquid that comes from cows and its impact in the US market.
Milk Money is a brief look at dairy farming in the USA. Ranging from the death of small dairy businesses, to stress on dairy farmers, conditions of dairy workers and farmhands, and the price of milk, almost every conceivable topic about milk is covered. There are internal looks at how some of the smaller and larger farms work. Why the industry is dying and farmers are going of business and to new businesses that are focused on quality are cropping up and thriving. There's even a look at the organic milk industry and how it really runs.
I wasn't really surprised by a lot of what I read in this book. Greed is a very big factor in America's food system and a lot of quality is cut to drive prices lower and lower. The way people treat animals says a lot about them and those cows are generally not treated the way you would expect from the sunny ads advertising milk on tv. As the writer, Kardashian presents a sometimes biased account of the farms and the big milk producers. His bias isn't without merit though, he provides facts to back up how he feels about these enterprises. But some of his comparisons are a little sensational and detract from the overall theme of the book.
This book is a quick read and for the most part easy to understand. There are sections (especially when we get to anti-trust laws and business laws) that are harder to understand and the sheer volume of acronyms makes things confusing. I actually felt myself trying to skim the pages at these parts and had to actively go back and reread sections just to make sure I was understanding what was being presented. I'm not sure what could be done to make that part of the book flow better, but how it is now just wasn't working for me. In contrast, the more personal stories, like that of Sam Simon, the farmer focused on organics, was very interesting and captured your attention. Those personal stories are clearly where Kardashian's writing strength lies rather than in brute facts. Still, he did a good amount of research on the subject.
I'd probably give this book 3.5 stars. It is chock full of information but can be tedious to read at times and will cause a good portion of the general population to not delve into the book. It's rather the fanatics and people who are obsessed with knowing where there food comes from (of which I'm entirely guilty of) who will slog through this book to the very end.
Milk Money
Copyright 2012
253 pages
Review by M. Reynard 2013
More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com
Milk Money is a brief look at dairy farming in the USA. Ranging from the death of small dairy businesses, to stress on dairy farmers, conditions of dairy workers and farmhands, and the price of milk, almost every conceivable topic about milk is covered. There are internal looks at how some of the smaller and larger farms work. Why the industry is dying and farmers are going of business and to new businesses that are focused on quality are cropping up and thriving. There's even a look at the organic milk industry and how it really runs.
I wasn't really surprised by a lot of what I read in this book. Greed is a very big factor in America's food system and a lot of quality is cut to drive prices lower and lower. The way people treat animals says a lot about them and those cows are generally not treated the way you would expect from the sunny ads advertising milk on tv. As the writer, Kardashian presents a sometimes biased account of the farms and the big milk producers. His bias isn't without merit though, he provides facts to back up how he feels about these enterprises. But some of his comparisons are a little sensational and detract from the overall theme of the book.
This book is a quick read and for the most part easy to understand. There are sections (especially when we get to anti-trust laws and business laws) that are harder to understand and the sheer volume of acronyms makes things confusing. I actually felt myself trying to skim the pages at these parts and had to actively go back and reread sections just to make sure I was understanding what was being presented. I'm not sure what could be done to make that part of the book flow better, but how it is now just wasn't working for me. In contrast, the more personal stories, like that of Sam Simon, the farmer focused on organics, was very interesting and captured your attention. Those personal stories are clearly where Kardashian's writing strength lies rather than in brute facts. Still, he did a good amount of research on the subject.
I'd probably give this book 3.5 stars. It is chock full of information but can be tedious to read at times and will cause a good portion of the general population to not delve into the book. It's rather the fanatics and people who are obsessed with knowing where there food comes from (of which I'm entirely guilty of) who will slog through this book to the very end.
Milk Money
Copyright 2012
253 pages
Review by M. Reynard 2013
More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com
June 5, 2014
The 4 star rating is mostly because this book is recent, well-researched, and it seems to make some sense out of what appears to be a very complicated industry. It's also the only comprehensive overview of the dairy industry I could find since the recent "locovore" movement, although there are probably others I don't know about.
This book is a little tough to get in to--its dense and for the first couple of chapters I wondered where it was going. But it picks up steam as Kardashian begins examining specific facets of the dairy industry's reach: the environment, illegal workers, and animal rights are covered. Each of these chapters is amazing. He ends on a hopeful note (necessary after all the despair you'll feel reading this) about a sustainable, beacon-of-hope dairy company called Hudson Valley Fresh.
A book in the tradition of Food Inc., this is an incredibly informative (if somewhat tough to read) book filled with recent research and personal interviews.
This book is a little tough to get in to--its dense and for the first couple of chapters I wondered where it was going. But it picks up steam as Kardashian begins examining specific facets of the dairy industry's reach: the environment, illegal workers, and animal rights are covered. Each of these chapters is amazing. He ends on a hopeful note (necessary after all the despair you'll feel reading this) about a sustainable, beacon-of-hope dairy company called Hudson Valley Fresh.
A book in the tradition of Food Inc., this is an incredibly informative (if somewhat tough to read) book filled with recent research and personal interviews.
March 16, 2014
Reasonably good, but is is really focused on New England dairies. It would have been useful to have some vignettes from western dairies to round out the story.
Not overtly political, yet - not surprising when the foreword was written by a Socialist - the solution the author proposed to every problem in the dairy industry seems to be more government intervention. But it's evident from the problems recounted in the book that the inability of any bureaucracy to account for unintended consequences of regulation and economic interference is the source of most of the problems in the industry.
Not overtly political, yet - not surprising when the foreword was written by a Socialist - the solution the author proposed to every problem in the dairy industry seems to be more government intervention. But it's evident from the problems recounted in the book that the inability of any bureaucracy to account for unintended consequences of regulation and economic interference is the source of most of the problems in the industry.
April 23, 2013
While I am not a fan of nonfiction, I did read this book that was suggested by my book club in Florida. I learned a great deal about farming and yet still feel like I know so little. The author does describe in detail the plight of the American dairy farm and the injustices they face on a daily basis.
March 8, 2013
Provides a well rounded background on the American dairy industry and touches on topics such as milk quality, farm/herd size, dairy cooperatives , monopolization, milk pricing, and the future of the dairy industry.
January 6, 2013
Great narrative, but too sensationalistic for my taste (a fact even the author admits in the preface, albeit in better-sounding words).
May 1, 2013
A very thorough examination of today's dairy industry.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews