(click on image to enlarge)
There is no doubt dairy farmers need better milk prices. If you get the government out, contrary to some opinion, and this includes the federal orders, the door is open for vertical integration as in chicken and pork.
A government role is necessary to limit the power of bullies. In order for the government to be involved there needs to be a clear and compelling public interest.
Dairy farmers are not the only ones hurting and the hurt started from the same attitude as we have in dairy pricing. See: http://www.economicsecurityindex.org/?p=home
The site is interactive and the graph shown above will change.
So, the question is both simple and broad - what is the public's interest in a healthy dairy system? Only if that question is answered very carefully, will we have a chance in Washington, DC.
that is a great question John-
ReplyDeleteits been a long known fact that this country has lived on the ideaology of "cheaper is better". to answer that question based on the last 15 yr trend, the answer would be:
the public only has an interest in a healthy dairy system if it makes it cheap. unfortunately they dont understand what cheap entails. cheap means no rules, no regulation, and no one responsible if people get sick and/or die. that is the question to propose to the american public. until that question is raised, answered, and the consequences dealt with, there is no american public interest in a healthy dairy system.
whats this all mean? the farm bill will come and probably go, the only changes that will be made to our system will solely benefit the processers(my opinion)and further push american dairy farms out. hope cananda doesnt do away with its quota system so they can get cheap overproduction milk
notice the trend... cheap.
(walmart have anything to do with todays consumer mindset???)
You know, I browse through Walmart occasionally and their milk costs more than my local supermarket chain so what savings do they pass on to consumers? Butter is about 18 cents cheaper there. If they are squeezing the processors then where is the savings to the consumer?
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