In the Nordic countries, milk products have long been considered an integral part of a healthy diet. Because of the big role that milk has played in the Nordic food and agricultural industries it is also entangled in many different sectors of society and has played an important role in ideas about nutrition and human-animal relations and more generally in culture, economics and politics.

Recently, the discussion on milk and dairy farming has turned more critical. Research has shown that industrial milk production is a significant source of carbon emissions and environmental problems, and awareness of animal welfare issues has risen among consumers.

Changing people’s eating habits towards a more sustainable trajectory is, however, not easy, especially when it comes to a food like milk which has been promoted in the Nordic countries for decades. In this paper, we explore the activities of two influential milk promoters, namely Maito ja terveys ry (Milk and Health Association) in Finland and Mjölkpropagandan/Mjölkfrämjandet (The Milk Propaganda/The Milk Promotion Society) in Sweden. The associations were established in the early and mid-20th century and continued until 2020, advancing the use of milk products for public health reasons, and producing and distributing promotional leaflets, brochures, and posters to different groups of people from toddlers to pensioners. We will look at these materials from the point of view of banal nationalism, which has increasingly been applied in food studies recently asking questions like: What kind of arguments and discourses have been used to justify milk as Nordic foodstuff? How has milk been associated with national emblems? What are the differences and similarities between milk promotion in Finland and Sweden? We argue that the nationalist meanings related to milk and milk production may be one reason for the resistance to more plant-based food systems.

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Tobias Linné is an Associate Professor at the Department of Communication and Media, Lund University. and co-founder of the Lund University Critical Animal Studies Network (LUCASN). His research is in critical animal studies and critical media studies, where he explores issues relating to veganism, animals as food, and how animals are made accessible for human consumption.

Taija Kaarlenkaski is an Associate Professor of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Turku, Finland. She researches contemporary technologized dairy farms, focusing on the multifaceted relations between humans, animals, and technology. Furthermore, she examines the cultural, political, national and economic meanings of milk and milk consumption in Finland.