China to World: Got Milk?

Prices of dairy products are likely to rocket in the wake of a massive rise in global demand triggered by new consumer juggernaut China, the BBC reports. China's taste for milk and cheese is outpacing its domestic dairy industry's ability to keep up, and prices in other countries will rise as exporters scramble to satisfy China.

"I have a dream to provide every Chinese, especially children, sufficient milk each day," said premier Wen Jiabao. The pursuit of dairy is the latest evidence that the reputedly lactose-intolerant Chinese aspire to a Western way of life, a newspaper columnist says: "They believe Westerners had a better lifestyle based on meat and milk." (More China stories.)