Latest Attack- H.R. 4015

While we are still waiting on USDA to make a final ruling, the efforts of consumers like you have almost certainly had an impact on the rulemaking process.  Hopefully, USDA will make the right decision and abandon its efforts to destroy our family-owned dairies. 

Unfortunately, our fight now includes the halls of Congress.  Over the past several weeks, certain Senators and Representatives have introduced legislation aimed at regulating producer-handlers--just like the proposed USDA rule.  The end results would be the same: limited consumer choice, decreased competition, likely milk price increases, and the virtual destruction of our farms. 

The latest bill is H.R. 4015, sponsored by Congressman Nunes.  Our opponents have been busy on Capitol Hill trying to convince members of Congress to support this misguided legislation.  We need your help to convince Congress that this is a bad idea . 

Please, call or e-mail your Congressman or Senator and tell then that you oppose H.R. 4015 .  Tell Congress that destroying multi-generational family farms and imposing unnecessary government controls on the only free market sector of the US dairy industry is bad for consumers.  Finally, ask your Member of Congress to express concerns to Congressman Bob Goodlatte, the Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, that H.R. 4015 should not be passed. 

To find your representative, click here:  www.house.gov

To find your senators, click here:  www.senate.gov

With your help, we can win this struggle. 

To learn more about H.R. 4015's proposed legislation visit these links:

www.govtrack.us

www.thomas.loc.gov

The Impacts of Less Competition and More Concentration in Dairy Retailing:

A key question concerning today's milk prices is whether cooperatives, processors or retailers are taking advantage of recent declines in raw milk prices and not passing savings on to consumers. News reports, as well as federal and state government data, suggest that this is true.

As an example, a news story published August 12, 2003 in The Seattle Times, "Highest milk prices in the nation found in Puget Sound area " said:

"Shoppers in the Seattle-Tacoma area pay more for milk than those anywhere else in the contiguous United States , yet the government-set farm price for milk in the state is nearly the nations' lowest, says a consumer-advocacy group."

"Experts offered a variety of theories to explain the high local retail prices. One is that grocery-chain mergers and consolidations have reduced the number of supermarket companies competing for the consumer's dollar, said both John Mykrantz, an agricultural economist with the regional office of the USDA, and Ronald Cotterill, a nationally known milk-price expert with the University of Connecticut."

"In this region, both QFC and Fred Meyer stores are now owned by Kroger, the nation's largest grocery chain, making Kroger, in effect, the second-largest chain in this area, after Safeway."  

Note: Kroger testified in support of the proposed amendments on the producer handler issue which would further reduce competition in the Washington milk market.

Consumer advocates have long argued that grocery store milk prices should follow farm milk prices up and down. That hasn't happened, even with the recent low farm prices for milk. The dairy processing industry cites several reasons why retail milk prices have not dropped more sharply, including higher energy and labor costs and investments by processors in new packaging, new promotions and new varieties of milk.

In practice, price hikes in fluid milk at the producer and wholesale level are routinely passed on to consumers.

The Wall Street Journal newspaper in a July 28, 2003 story, "Secret in the Dairy Aisle: Milk Is a Cash Cow," reported: "Indeed, Dean Foods is becoming a lightening rod in New England over milk prices. State officials say it controls roughly 70% of the region's bottled milk market, a figure Dean Foods won't confirm."

Read the actual proposed rulings by the USDA:

Federal Register