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In 1939 the Supreme Court in the Rock Royal case affirmed dairy farmers should get cost of production. The actual words of the Court bear repeating:
By Section 2, 7 U.S.C.A. § 602, it is declared to be the policy of Congress, through the exercise of the powers conferred upon the Secretary of Agriculture, 'to establish and maintain such orderly marketing conditions for agricultural commodities in interstate commerce as will establish prices to farmers at a level that will give agricultural commodities a purchasing power with respect to articles that farmers buy, equivalent to the purchasing power of agricultural commodities in the base period.
In other words "parity."
Then in 1981, Ronald Reagan signed a bill eliminating parity. The hue and cry from all experts was that without the end of parity, dairy farmers would continue to overproduce. Processors and co-ops dumping dairy products did not have to prove anything. The government stood ready to buy dairy products, which met standards.
The only basis for the claim would have been linear projection of recent milk production. So, projecting out the data available in 1981 indicates production would have been 160 billion pounds in 2009.
Trim a fruit tree and you get more, not less, fruit. Dairy farmers took the only option left and produced more - 29 billion pounds more in 2009.
Beware of the scams conjured up by people in high places. Critical thing should not be optional for dairy farmers,there is a high price to pay for being a follower.
