Dairy Farmers Make Beer as Milk Industry Sours

Dairy farmers Molly Stevens and Sean DuBois recently converted a portion of their Massachusetts dairy operation Carter & Stevens Farm into a beer brewery and taproom. “We’re at a historic low nationwide in terms of farmers getting money for their milk,” DuBois told the New York Times. “To succeed today as a dairy farm, you need to diversify. We found our passion for craft beer.” The brewery portion of the operation is becoming more profitable as Stevens and DuBois sell beer for $7 per pint and raw milk for $0.16 per pint, even though the latter is more expensive to produce. To mitigate losses in the dairy industry driven by consumer shift toward plant-based milk, some dairy farms have chosen to wholly transition their operations. After 80 years in the dairy business, Elmhurst Dairy shuttered its processing facility—the first of its kind in New York City limits—and re-launched last year as a profitable vegan brand Elmhurst Milked.