Retail and Farm Milk Price

There is an interesting publication by NY's Comptroller: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/pubs/research/snapshot/0310snapshot.pdf

Data which shows something of the problems facing both dairy farmers and dairy communities. The data generally applies to any region of the country.

I am however disturbed by:

There have been claims made that supermarket
prices were not coming down as fast as the price
to farmers, leading to accusations of price fixing.
However, the most recent data appear to show
average retail prices dropping fairly symmetrically
with the price paid to farmers.

The average consumer price index for fluid milk in the U.S. from January 09 through January 2010 was 183.67. The corresponding number for farm milk price is 97.75. The indexes are based upon the period 1982-84 = 100. So those numbers mean that the CPI has nearly doubled - in fact in 2008 it had doubled - from the base time, while dairy farm prices are less than the base period.

Those p[utting together the data probably were well aware of the misleading aspect of their data or the would have had the retail price and the farm price begin at the same time.