Feds. won't let dairy lower prices for milk - really

[donsu]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002294753_danny01.html


Dairy gets squeezed by the feds

In its 85 years of existence, Smith Brothers Dairy in Kent has survived all manner of misfortune and mistakes.

There was the Depression, when milk sales plummeted. There were cow-killing floods. There were modern times, when it appeared the old-fashioned idea of fresh milk delivered to the doorstep had died.

And there was the crackdown when society realized cow manure could be as toxic to fish as anything produced at a nuclear plant.

"None of that compares to this," says Alexis Smith Koester, 60, dairy president and granddaughter of the founder, Ben Smith. "This is the biggest threat we've ever faced."

She's talking about the federal government.

-snip-

What are the feds trying to stop? They're trying to keep Smith Brothers Dairy from selling its milk for less.
-snip-
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and the Feds wouldn't let a beef company test their cattle for mad cow, and as a result they lost sales to Japan.

america the fair

[ThomWV]

1. Nothing New There

Milk production and pricing in this country has been under the control of the Government since 1933 if my memory serves me correctly.

[kittenpants]

2. the mark-up from what farmers get paid to what the consumer

pays is ginormous! The milk companies are rich while smaller farmers (or even large family operations) can't stay in business without increasing their size to that of the coporate farms out west.

[ThomWV]

4. Actually That's Not True In Dairy Farming

This isn't like growing Wheat or raising chickens in a cage. Dairy farms are of necessity on the small size and located close to their markets as well. There are precious few middle men in the milk distribution system, but Government control is omnipresent. In this case that is a good thing, but for health rather than economic reasons.

[kittenpants]

6. actually I grew up on a dairy farm and increasingly that IS what it's like

[The Whiskey Priest]

3. Don't you just love convoluted thinking...

Free market...yet big business and their paid henchmen, Congress, get to pick winners and losers......Doesn't sound like free market they teach in economics....do it?

[barbaraann]

5. Check out this website:

http://keepmilkpriceslow.org/

These are probably people who voted for Bush and are now sorry.

[kittenpants]

7. bottled water costs more than milk...

crybabies (not you, the people on that link)