Subsidized milk in schools

Just looking at an interview in the Independent Online Edition. There is an interview with an elementary school teacher who talks about the national milk subsidies for milk in public schools. I was unaware that Britain also had this practice. Japan does, too. All of the kids at elementary school get milk for lunch. And like Britain, in the past the children were forced to drink it.

Do lots of countries do this? I thought it was only a Japanese thing. I know when I was in elementary school (some 39 years ago) we got milk with lunch, but I don't know if that is still happening.

We don't drink milk at home for several reasons. First is that cows' milk is fine for calves, but isn't that great for raising humans. There are also lots of nutritional alternatives that don't encourage the mistreatment of animals. The dairy industry does. One quote here that I thought was interesting.

Drinking milk also helps to keep the children calm compared with drinking fizzy pop, which would send them loopy, so I think the Government should definitely do everything it can to encourage children to drink milk.

So schools either have to pander to the dairy industry or to the soft drink industry? Seems like quite a leap to me. I think both of them are lousy alternatives.