Did you know that Uncle Sam is price-fixing milk?

[Isaac Bickerstaff]

I must be misunderstanding this. Has anyone actually seen milk at that price or lower? Last year, I was paying over $4/gal for milk. Even today, after the huge drop in price, i'm still paying about $2.80, almost twice that minimum. If milk is already selling for much higher than the state/federal mandated minimums, how can the minimum cost be making shoppers spend extra money?

Yeah, the dairy farmers. Too bad it costs most of them over $2.00/gallon to produce it. If the minimum price to the farmer goes up, everyone along the food chain uses that as an excuse to jack up their rates, and the "greedy farmer" gets blamed while the middle man skims off the top.

Oh, well, you get what you pay for. If you only pay $2.50 for a gallon of milk, you are not going to get anything of quality. The whole industrialized farming paradigm runs on razor thin margins. It only takes a small shift from the consumer to greatly impact the entire food chain. My advice: if you cannot afford organic milk, save your $2.50. Highly processed industrial milk is poison and you are better off without it. This is not an exaggeration. If you withhold your milk money, possibly enough government-supported corporate farms will go out of business and real dairy farmers will take their place; your milk money can be used for actual milk and not something that just looks like it.

[Danke]

Does that go for all dairy products? Like cheese? Stick to Organic?

[Isaac Bickerstaff]

Does that go for all dairy products? Like cheese? Stick to Organic?

I would say, "yes" but then I am biased. The chemicals that the cows ingest end up in the fats of the milk, so industrial butter and cream could have higher levels of pesticides/herbicides than even the food the cows eat that were directly sprayed. Cheese at least has gone through a microbial process where it is possible that some of the toxins have been broken down.

When milk is pasteurized, the bacteria is not removed, it is only killed. When many species of bacteria die, they release histamines. Most people who have "dairy allergies" are simply responding to the histamines in the milk, and not producing their own as in a typical allergic reaction. The hope is that organic milk would have higher standards so there would be fewer bacteria and therefore less histamine in the milk. This is not always the case, but you have a much better chance of getting cleaner milk if it is organic.

Industrialized farms often use artificial hormones to stimulate the cows to produce more milk. This has the unintended consequence of burning the cows out before they even reach maturity. Yeah, it sucks for the cows, but while they are producing ungodly amounts of milk in their artificially short careers, they are not healthy and an alarming amount of puss gets secreted into the milk. Most industrial dairy farmers understand this and will not even drink their own milk. All of the Organic dairy farmers I know have no problem drinking the milk they produce.

I really do not know how much of that crap gets into the cheese, but industrial butter is best used as gun oil for the Ruskies (sorry, cold war humor).

[anaconda]

My microeconomics professor went over milk price supports on the blackboard. This is a classic case of how price supports are beyond ridiculous. There is so much social deadweight loss from this that it turns out that everyone would be better off if we simply gave the farmers the money equal to the difference between the subsidized price and the free market price and let the milk itself be subjected to the free market. But this is politically unfeasible because the voters are idiots and the politicians are thieves and whores. No one would stand for a politician who said "Let's just give money to the farmers!" But they will tolerate "Let's make sure the great American farmer gets a fair price for their product!" Basically what happens is that the milk consumers get royally screwed because they can't afford to buy as much milk, plus they get to give their tax money to the milk farmer.

[idiom]

Feel free to stop subsidising your farmers anytime you 'free marketers' you.

Yeah we hate you for your freedom.

[Thane Eichenauer]

http://ktar.com/22/1598115/Agricultu...er-milk-prices

"Vilsack says that if a new farm bill isn't passed soon, Congress may have to revert to a 1949 law that forces the government to buy milk from farmers at twice today's average price of $3.65 a gallon. Vilsack says the government could then pass those costs along to you."

I am puzzled over this wording. Given that government milk and cheese stores don't exists by what mechanism is government going to pass those costs along to me?

[Working Poor]

I don't drink it so this doesn't affect me much. I don't eat a lot of processed foods either.

But, I do think milk standards of government are off and take from what ever nutrition it may have.

[talkingpointes]

Milk for as long as I can remember (I'm 28) has been between 2-2.50 a gallon here in Phoenix. I'm not surprised by the OP, the dairy industry has always been monopolistic looking.

[oyarde]

I do not drink milk , I can get it for $1.98 @ the local Aldi and often do to take South to the kids & grand kids when I visit .It is about $4 everywhere else. Costs are going to go up , due to smaller herds due to corn prices. The USDA needs to be eliminated. What milk costs matters not to me , other things are of more importance and are tied to corn as well.

[acptulsa]

http://ktar.com/22/1598115/Agricultu...er-milk-prices

"Vilsack says that if a new farm bill isn't passed soon, Congress may have to revert to a 1949 law that forces the government to buy milk from farmers at twice today's average price of $3.65 a gallon. Vilsack says the government could then pass those costs along to you."

I am puzzled over this wording. Given that government milk and cheese stores don't exists by what mechanism is government going to pass those costs along to me?

Besides raise your taxes, you mean?

Excellent and perceptive question. I believe their point is that the government will affect the market by overpaying for milk. And it may. But I hardly think the federal government will begin buying all the milk on the market, and I'm sure it's propaganda to suggest that the market will automatically pay as much as the government does.

Just because the Department of Defense is willing to spend six hundred bucks for a hammer doesn't mean your local hardware store thinks you're just as stupid.