According to RiseOfTheVegan.com , Elmhurst Dairy in Queens has closed down after 90 years and reopened as a plant-based milk company.





Debuted last week at Natural Foods Expo West in California, the new nut-based brand is called Milked. CEO Henry Schwartz says his products pack "up to 4 times more nuts per serving than the other leading brands" and will be available in four flavors: almond, hazelnut, cashew, and walnut.





Elmhurst had been operating at a high cost in recent years, and according to Schwartz, “Pasteurized fluid milk has sort of gone out of style.” He explains:

[W]e are unable to continue to go on without ongoing losses. There isn’t much room for our kind of business. I tried to keep this open because it was my father’s plant and he asked me to do so.

But this story is part of something bigger. Since 1970, cow's milk consumption has fallen a whopping 40 percent in the U.S., while sales of dairy-free milk alternatives have soared by 30 percent since 2011.





Earlier this year, NBC News reported that internet grocery delivery giant Instacart found searches for "Non-Dairy" were up by 222 percent. Rebecca Silliman, the company’s head of communications, said, “Coconut, soy, and almond milks are all having a moment, and are in everything from yogurt to ice cream to creamer.”





This is great news for cows. On modern dairy farms, cows are roughly handled, forcibly inseminated, and kept in terrible conditions . Their calves are torn away from them shortly after birth. Male calves are killed for veal. Females are raised to produce more milk, trapped in a cycle of abuse for years until they are considered “spent” and sent to slaughter.





Watch this undercover footage from a recent MFA investigation in Colorado.









Thankfully, it’s never been easier to ditch animal products. Join the growing number of people who are taking a stand for animals , the environment , and their own health by transitioning to a plant-based diet.





Click here to order your FREE Vegetarian Starter Guide.



