Over the course of the two-week study abroad experience in Mexico I was continuously surprised by the amount of familiarity I felt whenever we visited dairy farms. There were so many aspects that were inter-related it’s hard to realize them all.

I was shocked when we learned about Mexico also having issues with the amount of fluid milk consumption when visiting with the FDA. After I thought about the issue it made sense when considering the typical Mexican diet but was never an aspect I ever thought about.

It was interesting then to learn about their different marketing techniques they used to try and increase the amount of milk consumption. Most of the marketing techniques were similar to what we do in the United States.

Another similarity is the school program run by Laconsa,where they provide at least one eight ounce glass of milk to young students every day. This milk not only helps the farmers with providing a place to sell and provide their product, but it also helps stave off some malnutrition in the younger generation in Mexico. This program reminds me of the government program in Wisconsin that provides milk and cheese to smaller rural schools. This program also focuses on providing a free andnutritious snack to children. It too provides a place for farmers to send their milk but isn’t as huge of an impact on the farmers as it is on the children.

It still baffles me to understand the powdered milk and fluid milk trade between the United States and Mexico. Why would Mexico purchase basically all of their fluid milk from the US when it would be cheaper to buy their own milk and then fill the need  with milk from the US.Rather than turning almost all of their production into powdered milk and sending it to the US only to purchase all of their fluid milk.Coming from Wisconsin and from a dairy farm makes this specific trade transaction unrealistic for me. I do realize why they have this situation and that there are many different situations but it still seems more work than to utilize what products Mexico already has in their country.  Another similarityis the school program run by Laconsa,where they provide at least one eight ounce glass of milk to young students every day. This milk not only helps the farmers with providing a place to sell and provide their product, but it also helps stave off some malnutrition in the younger generation in Mexico. This program reminds me of the government program in Wisconsin that provides milk and cheese to smaller rural schools. This program also focuses on providing a free and nutritious snack to children. It too provides a place for farmers to send their milk but isn’t as huge of an impact on the farmers as it is on the children.   

Coming from Wisconsin and from a dairy farm makes this specific trade transaction unrealistic for me. I do realize why they have this situation and that there are many different situations but it still seems more work than to utilize what products Mexico already has in their country.

Over the course of the two