[Milk and modernity: ideology and nutrition policies during the Vargas era]

In the 1930s the new science of nutrition was disseminated in Brazil, which also introduced the conviction that cow's milk was the most important of staple foods. Despite the campaign promoted by the Ministério de Educação e Saúde Pública (Ministry of Education and Public Health) in the mid-1930s, the consumption of milk in Rio de Janeiro remained far short of the recommendations of experts due to the poor quality of the product and its high price. This paper analyzes the efforts of the Estado Novo to improve the milk supply system of the Brazilian capital as well as to mitigate the causes and effects of its ultimate failure.