First they came for the milk-drinkers. In the last five years, you might have noticed a puzzling succession of headlines aimed at milk. Maybe it was the Buzzfeed article titled “Hate to Break It To You: Drinking Milk Is Not Okay,” or the Vice story that said drinking milk “is unsettling behavior,” or a film critic’s op-ed which stated “only psychopaths drink milk.” Maybe you recently noticed yourself feeling awkward when you had to clarify to your local barista that you’d like “regular” or “cow’s milk,” not oat, almond, or soy. If you’d really been making the connections, you would have also noticed that dairy farmers are committing suicide in record numbers.

Milk is in crisis. Not oat, almond, or soy milk, but dairy milk. Compared with each of the previous six decades, American milk consumption fell fastest in the 2010s, down from a peak of over two cups per day to just half a cup. An average of five dairy farms shut down every day in the US, representing a loss of more than 38,000 farms since 2003. Dairy cooperatives like Agri-Mark Inc. have resorted to mailing their farmers a list of suicide prevention hotlines alongside their bleak price forecasts.