The WMMB Link - Winning with Wisconsin Dairy
Got Hoops? It's game time! For many of us, March is an exciting time of year as our favorite basketball teams dribble, drive and shoot their way into spring.
Did you know for more than a dozen years, milk has been the official beverage of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) and the high school tournament games? The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (WMMB) recently sponsored the WIAA State Girls' and Boys' Basketball Tournaments, giving Wisconsin's dairy farmers an excellent opportunity to showcase the importance of dairy nutrition for young athletes and consumers of all ages.
Also, during the tournaments, WMMB ran television spots featuring Dairy Impact messages. To see this series, go to YouTube.com and type in: Millennial Profiles. My favorite Profile features former Packer and Badger football great Mark Tauscher!
WMMB also recently joined a nationwide social media effort to promote five key facts about milk and dairy products:
1. Milk is a delicious nutrient powerhouse and it's not just for kids.
2. Milk is a real, wholesome and local product from family farms.
3. Milk contains a lot that's good (calcium, niacin, potassium, riboflavin), without the "bad" that some people think (like excess calories).
4. Milk is simple especially compared to non-dairy processed milks that can have more than 10 ingredients.
5. Milk provides high-quality protein about 7 grams per 8-ounce serving (almond and other non-dairy milks may have just 1 gram of protein).
Further examining soy and almond milks, the social media effort also compared ingredient labels. Did you know soy and almond milk labels list as many as 10 additives, including sugar, thickeners and even salt?
Using hashtags #MilkTruth and #GetReal, dairy producers helped flood social media with support for milk. WMMB joined the effort via DairyDoingMore.org's Facebook and Twitter accounts. While many dairy producers and organizations like WMMB fought hard to highlight the truth about milk, it didn't take long for people who dislike dairy to launch into an anti-dairy campaign. That's why we must continue to communicate three important truths about Wisconsin dairy farmers:
1. We carefully nurture and care for our animals.
2. We protect and maintain our natural resources with current best practices.
3. We are regulated and continually monitored to ensure that we provide an extremely safe (antibiotic free) and nutritious food source.
If consumers understand these three concepts, I truly believe they would more readily consume dairy products and reap the benefits of a healthier life!
So let's grab a glass of the best athletic recovery beverage around chocolate milk to join the UW-Madison men's basketball team in solidarity as they compete for the NCAA title. Go March! Go Bucky!
3.23.2015