Joaquin Phoenix's Oscars speech has the Dairy Industry up in arms this week. Academy Award winners often use their time on stage to draw attention to issues that are important to them, communicating them to a wide audience of both Hollywood stars and the tens of millions of viewers watching at home. The awards season has gradually become more and more political over the years, but this year the speeches seemed to lean more towards being personal.

One actor though who could not resist the opportunity was Joaquin Phoenix, who took the stage to accept his award for Best Actor and called out the dairy industry over their poor treatment of cows during milk production. Well, The National Milk Producers Federation has now responded following the actor's comments, telling Phoenix he needs to gain a fuller understanding.

"If he [Phoenix] studied the commitment of dairy farmers to animal welfare and had a fuller understanding of the contribution of dairy products to a nutritious diet, especially for children, he might have a different perception of the value that dairy contributes to global health and the importance of the dairy sector to global livelihood."

The spokesman from The National Milk Producers Federation, Alan Bjerga, responded to Joaquin Phoenix's words amidst a $3 billion fall in milk sales over the past four years. More and more consumers are now turning to milk alternatives in an effort to combat pollution and climate change across the globe. Almond milk continues to be regularly bought by more grocery shoppers, with oat milk sales rising over 600% over the last year. Are you interested in so much factual data concerning milk? Perhaps not, but there it is. Joaquin Phoenix would be proud.

Despite these rather damning statistics, as well as Phoenix's pretty scathing Oscars speech, the National Milk Producers Federation spokesperson says he is not worried about its impact on the dairy industry.

"We haven't seen any long-term impact [when comments like these were made previously]. People buy milk because it's nutritious and healthy for their families, not because they're following the thoughts of celebrities using a platform. Milk continues to be in 94 percent of refrigerators."

Sounds pretty cocky for a guy going up against the Joker.

Joaquin Phoenix is, of course, a vegan himself, with the actor recently leading a protest in London regarding animal rights, with him and his fellow protestors hanging a sign on Tower Bridge urging people to switch to a vegan diet. Throughout the awards season, Phoenix has touched upon a variety of issues that clearly matter very much to him, and winning so many awards has given him ample chances to air his concerns to everyone. Much like all of his speeches, Joaquin Phoenix's words at the Oscars came across very genuine.

"I think we have become very disconnected from the natural world. And many of us, what we're guilty of is an egocentric worldview - the belief we're the center of the universe. We go into the natural world and we plunder it for its resources. We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and when she gives birth, we steal her baby even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable. And then we take her milk that is intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal. And I think we fear the idea of personal change because we think we have to sacrifice something to give something up."

This comes to us from Fox Business.