""How CAN people drink skimmed or even semi-skimmed milk? When I was a girl, it was given to the pigs!""

I grew up on a farm and we also gave skim (separated) milk to the pigs. It was not that it did not taste good.

The only reason was there was no local market for drinking milk, we could only sell cream, to make cheese, ice cream etc. And, we had too much for ourselves and our neighbours, who also had dairy cattle.

Today, in Canada, there is a supply marketing system. Unless farmers have a milk quota, they cannot sell milk to the dairies. Quotas are fixed, and expensive to purchase. That keeps the price in stores controlled and high.