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If you walked into a supermarket between 1982 and 1984 you could notice the price for that time period. The Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates indexes of prices based on that period.
The base period in stated as 100 and is equal to 100 % of the base price. In 2008 the retail milk price had more than doubled to 217.22.
So, if you take the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for fluid milk and the Producer Price Index (PPI) for farm milk going to the bottle, over a period of time there is an obvious growing share going to those above the farmer.
Both the processing and the containers are the same as they were in the 1982-84 period. The way the pie is sliced is different.
There is no "market" based price for farm milk going to fluid uses. The price is derived from the dairy products traded at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
It's a shame that fluid milk should be priced by commodities that don't even have anything to do with fluid.I know the processor lobby is huge, but does no one in Washington have their eyes open? 300 million for a one time payment spread out over all the dairy producers in the country is chicken feed compared to the bailouts being passed around elsewhere. Today I read they earmarked 78 million to do a study on the CARP in the great lakes. That will save a lot of farms and jobs.
ReplyDeleteMy "help" from the government amounted to 5% of what I lost from 2008. The other 95% had to come out of my pocket, or should I say Farm Credit's pocket?
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