Jay Gould
US financier & railroad businessman (1836 - 1892)
Jay Gould could have been talking about dairy farmers but, it isn't the farmers that are the problem. The problem is the leadership, which includes land-grant experts.
A paper on the 196 Farm Bill written by Ed Jesse is available at: http://future.aae.wisc.edu/publications/mpb55.pdf
Jesse says in the paper:
"Upper Midwest objections to the Compact are grounded in its effect on the supply of milk for manufacturing purposes and the resulting effect on prices for manufactured dairy products."
"The Compact sets fluid milk prices higher than federal order minimums. This decreases fluid milk consumption and, through an increase in the blend price to producers, increases milk production. Larger production and reduced fluid consumption add to the supply of manufacturing milk, lowering manufacturing milk prices both inside and outside the Compact area."
As can be seen in the graph in the previous post, Jesse's argument is pure fiction.
Now, move ahead to the present.
See: http://www.agriview.com/articles/2010/07/08/dairy_news/dairy03.txt
The article is about supply management, which IDFA opposes as they did the Compact.
Here is Jesse:
Jesse said there are differences of opinion based largely on which region of the U.S. a producer lives and farms in. For example, Jesse said California is pushing supply control “hard” because “they’ve lost their competitiveness because of higher feed prices. They want to ensure that they can keep their market share by forcing others to cut back...”
Evidence of that “hard” push for mandatory supply controls is seen in the names of the authors and co-authors of the two versions of the Dairy Price Stabilization Act of 2010. Representative Jim Costa, a Democrat from California, has signed on.
The bills also have backing from senators and representatives from Northeast states, which, Jesse said, are also at a competitive disadvantage to Wisconsin and other Upper Midwest states when it comes to producing milk somewhat inexpensively. Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, is the lead author of the Senate bill, while Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, has also added his name to the legislation. Meanwhile, the House bill bears the names of Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont, along with the names of John Larson and Joe Courtney, a pair of Democrats, both from Connecticut.
“They’re fairly strongly in favor of this,” said Jesse, of the Northeast. “I think they see it as a way of n just like California n ensuring that they can continue to produce milk and support local communities. That’s not a bad objective, but at the same time, I think you have to consider where milk can be produced the most efficiently, and consider the movement of milk as opposed to the local supply...”
Jessie worries that a supply control program might hurt the growth in dairying that Wisconsin has enjoyed the last few years. And he said that Canada’s example shows that there is “no clear evidence” that a milk quota system helps retain dairy farm numbers.
"It's déjà vu all over again" as Yogi Berra used to say.
Basically, any plan which stand a real chance of putting more money in the farmer's pocket will be opposed by land-grant experts - who are on the public dole.
