Los Banos Rotary Club History
Dairy Program At Rotary Club

Declaring the dairy cow to be the greatest single source of income in the United States, Ira Hackett, manager of the Danish Creamery at Chowchilla, Tuesday noon told members of the Rotary Club that the dairy industry and its allied trades provided a livelihood for some 10 million people in this country last year. Sale of milk and cream alone amounted to 4 ¼ billion dollars, and to California the industry returned last year a surprising dollar take of $385,000,000.

Pointing out that June is Dairy Month, Hackett emphasized the importance of milk and dairy products as a food, and said that it comprises almost 20 per cent of all food consumed in this country. Acknowledged by doctors and scientists as probably the most important of all human foods, Hackett pointed to the use record established by the U.S. Armed Services in World War II, in which thousands of men returned from the war solely because of the physical fitness and reserve stamina afforded by the milk products they received.
As an example of milk's food value, the speaker told of an experiment among a large group of office workers. It was found that workers who supplemented their morning cup of coffee and slice of toast with only one glass of milk showed a 40 per cent increase in efficiency in their work.

Hackett also said that milk, long considered as a fattening food, now is gaining favor with doctors who prescribe reducing diets. Strict reducing diets, supplemented by a glass of milk and a pat of butter with each meal, provide a sustenance that permits taking off fat pounds without ill effect. Butter, an acknowledged fattening fod, however, has other properties that make it valuable in reducing diets—it seems to satisfy appetites as does no other food and eliminates that "always hungry" feeling that is the bane of every pound-watcher.

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