Jump to content
Washington Football Team Logo
Extremeskins
Forum Rules and Guidelines

wtf milk prices going up too?

Leonard Washington

By Leonard Washington
in The Tailgate

Recommended Posts

Leonard Washington

Leonard Washington

Posted
Posted
CANTON, Georgia (CNN) -- Record-high milk prices are stinging Americans at the dairy case, just as millions of thirsty school children are returning to classes.

A student enjoys his milk during lunch at Northwestern Elementary in Zachary, Louisiana.

The average retail price of a gallon of whole milk has never been higher -- $3.80 a gallon -- according to July Department of Agriculture statistics. Experts blame the price spike -- up 51 cents since February -- on milk shortages in Europe and Australia.

Prices are approaching $5 a gallon in Georgia, where on a sweltering summer day last week, about 100 children and parents toured Mark Cagle's dairy farm north of Atlanta.

Tim and Beth Byington wrangled their two preschool children around the farm, surrounded by mooing Holsteins.

"It's really expensive when you're on a budget," said Beth Byington, who explains that her hands are tied when it comes to the cost of milk. Watch the Byingtons describe their struggle with higher prices »

"We can't do anything, and we have to buy our milk," she said. "So sometimes we cut back on other food -- like buying store brands and other things."

Her husband agrees. "I can't remember a time when it was this high," he said. The farm's black and white dairy herd gives about 400 gallons of milk a day -- a drop in the bucket compared to sprawling corporate-owned facilities that supply most of the nation.

But shoppers at the grocer's dairy case aren't the only consumers feeling the pinch. Starbucks coffee and Papa John's pizza blame their recent price hikes in part on more expensive milk. Cheese and ice cream makers such as Kraft and Ben & Jerry's said they're taking notice.

The cost of dairy products also touches millions of children who depend on America's federal school lunch program, which includes milk as a necessary part of their nutrition. See more about milk prices and school lunches »

"If milk prices do go up in a big way, certainly people who run school meal programs will notice it," said Joanne Guthrie at the USDA. "Just as a family that buys milk regularly would notice it and somehow adapt -- schools would too."

Lunch ladies -- and lunch gentlemen -- whose cafeteria budgets are stressed by higher milk prices may try to offset costs by substituting menu items with less expensive fruits or veggies, say analysts. Uncle Sam won't be adjusting federal school lunch subsidies -- if necessary -- until fall of 2008, at the earliest.

As she accompanied her daughter around the Cagle farm, Margaret O'Neill said she would prefer that her school-age daughter drink milk instead of soda. "It's much healthier," said O'Neill. "If milk's $5 a gallon, it's going to impact your lunches at school but it's still important to at least get something that's nutritious."

What gives? Grocery shoppers in Omaha, Nebraska, may be surprised to know that the blame rests on the other side of the Atlantic -- and the other side of the world. It's all about supply and demand. Decreasing dairy supplies and rising demand for it are forcing prices up.

Supply is down in Australia and Europe, while demand is up in nations with rising standards of living such as China.

"A drought in Australia has reduced their dairy export potential while the European Union has quotas that limit increases in milk production," said professor Michael Hutjens, a dairy industry scholar at the University of Illinois.

Also playing a smaller role in the price spike is higher demand for corn-based ethanol fuel, according to USDA analyst Ephraim Leibtag. Increased demand for corn pushes up costs for cattle feed, which is then added to the price of milk.

Although farmers such as Cagle are getting more money for their milk, they also are forced to pay higher prices to feed their dairy cows. The Southeast has been plagued for the past few years by droughts which have pushed feed corn prices higher.

"The dairy farmer is not making a significant amount of money because the input costs are so much higher than they were," said Cagle

Link to comment
Share on other sites
JohnLockesGhost

JohnLockesGhost

Posted
Posted
As long as the government makes a push for more ethanol, all dairy and beef products are going to climb. Economists have been screaming that a knee-jerk reaction to our dependence upon gasoline would have serious repercussions. This is one.

Yeah, and now we have GM jumping on the PR bandwagon with their livegreengoyellow.com junk. :doh:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
macnoke03

macnoke03

Posted
Posted
Huh? As in I drink a gallon a week with no help from anyone..aka I drink a gallon by myself a week..aka my girlfriend doesn't drink milk...aka I buy a gallon every week just for me...aka you get the picture

aka I've never heard somebody say I take it to the head when describing drinking milk (or anything)

no need to get so defensive...my response was more in good fun than anything :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
JohnLockesGhost

JohnLockesGhost

Posted
Posted

A good article on the national price-support policy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/09/AR2006120900925_pf.html

In the summer of 2003, shoppers in Southern California began getting a break on the price of milk.

A maverick dairyman named Hein Hettinga started bottling his own milk and selling it for as much as 20 cents a gallon less than the competition, exercising his right to work outside the rigid system that has controlled U.S. milk production for almost 70 years. Soon the effects were rippling through the state, helping to hold down retail prices at supermarkets and warehouse stores.

That was when a coalition of giant milk companies and dairies, along with their congressional allies, decided to crush Hettinga's initiative. For three years, the milk lobby spent millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions and made deals with lawmakers, including incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).

Last March, Congress passed a law reshaping the Western milk market and essentially ending Hettinga's experiment -- all without a single congressional hearing.

"They wanted to make sure there would be no more Heins," said Mary Keough Ledman, a dairy economist who observed the battle.

Hettinga, who ran a big business and was no political innocent, fought back with his own lobbyists and alliances with lawmakers. But he found he was no match for the dairy lobby.

"I had an awakening," the 64-year-old Dutch-born dairyman said. "It's not totally free enterprise in the United States."

Link to comment
Share on other sites
China

China

Posted
Posted
Merge!

http://www.extremeskins.com/forums/showthread.php?t=202416

I've been talking about this for a while. And in my original post in the above thread, I used "Big Dairy" as a tongue in cheek kinda thing....I didn't think it was true until reading that article!

You are correct. Corn prices for feed go up because there isn't as much corn available because it's being used to make fuel. Thus milk and beef prices (and alot of other things) go up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
JohnLockesGhost

JohnLockesGhost

Posted
Posted
Our agricultural policy is so screwed up. Yeah, heaven forbid someone (like Mr. Hettinga) actually tries to compete instead of :cry:ing to the gov't like big babies.

No matter how jaded I think I've become about politics, it still baffles and amazes me how politicians can consistently overlook the general welfare to cater to a small special interest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...