Milk; photo by guilherme pavan on Flickr (noncommercial use permitted with attribution / share alike).
Official State Beverage of Tennessee
Tennessee designated milk as the official state beverage in 2009 in recognition of its health benefits. All State Foods & Beverages
The Tennessee dairy industry produced nearly 100 million pounds of milk in 2007, with receipts for milk and milk products totaling nearly $202 million. A very popular state symbol, milk is recognized as a state drink or beverage in twenty states, in addition to being the primary ingredient in the state snack of New York (yogurt), and the state dessert of Missouri (ice cream cone).
Milk Facts
Milk has been called a nearly perfect food; a source of protein, calcium, and several other important nutrients. Each lactating dairy cow produces about 6.5 gallons of milk per day. Less than half of this milk is consumed as a beverage - the rest is used for butter, cheese, ice cream, milk powder and other processed products.
