Americans Could Pay $7 For A Gallon Of Milk If US Goes Off 'Dairy Cliff'

[FarCenter]

Congress is at another impasse. This time, America is facing a countdown to the “dairy cliff.”

The farm bill, which since the Depression has offered risk-taking farmers price supports and guarantees while helping the poor by providing free basic foods, has become the latest victim of a divided Washington desperate to put the brakes on spending while tweaking social welfare policies.

“This is a historic breakdown,” writes the editorial board of The Des Moines (Iowa) Register newspaper.

While the main issue is the extent of cuts to food stamps, now called SNAP (or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), the stakes are high enough to potentially touch just about every American family – namely by doubling milk prices to as much as $7 a gallon.

http://www.businessinsider.com/americans-could-pay-7-for-a-gallon-of-milk-if-us-goes-off-dairy-cliff-2013-12

[Chan790]

1. Again?

Am I the only person who at this point thinks we need to go off the dairy cliff?

The price of milk isn't going to double because subsidies do not work as a means of price control...the price of milk today is what it is because that is what the market will bear. Nobody will pay $7/gal. for milk (or even $5) so the large corporations that dominate the market like ADM, Monsanto and Kraft will end up taking it in the wallet and dropping the price back to what Americans will pay for milk, dairy and cheese because beats losing even more money by letting it rot in the pails.

[FarCenter]

4. ADM, Monsanto, and Kraft will do fine if the government buys enough milk to double the price.

Without a new farm bill, the law reverts to Depression-era law which requires the government to buy milk to support the higher price.

What the government does with the milk isn't clear -- maybe they pour it out on the ground, maybe they make it into that nasty cheese that we used to get in school lunches in the '50s.

[Chan790]

7. Government cheese?

I'd go stand in line for a weekly ration of cheddar and a quart of 2%.

I don't suppose we can repeal the Depression-era law though? That seems like a win for everybody but nobody proposes it.

[KamaAina]

6. People in Hawai'i are used to paying $5

or more.

[Chan790]

9. On the mainland OTOH...

I once had a dairy manager for a supermarket tell me that they make almost no profit on organic or Lactaid or other non-standard dairy because people simply will not break $5 as a sort of mental barrier so they sell it at a reduced margin (I just checked, Lactaid in my local organic Kosher store is $4.69.) because otherwise it sits on the shelf until it goes on the "Dairyman's rack" (imminent expiry.) for half-price. You, in turn, pay more markup on items such as ice cream that people will buy at any price, to even out the profit margins.

It's like $4 gas. The number of Americans that say they would stop buying gas at $4 is about 20% higher than at $3.90.

[KamaAina]

10. You have a local organic Kosher store?!

Such a thing is unheard of even here in the Bay Area. In fact, SF's last Kosher grocery is closing; people will have to go over to Oakland.

[Chan790]

11. I live in the Kemp Mill section of Silver Spring/Wheaton, MD.

The neighborhood is ~70% Orthodox Jewish.

[KamaAina]

12. I never knew that

I thought neighborhoods like that were found only in and around NYC or maybe Boston.

[KurtNYC]

8. The price of milk is artificially low because

as you cite the business is now dominated by large players. Milk is broken down for shipping and then re-made into 1%, skim, 2%, etc. So every diary farmer must compete with the lowest cost producers regardless of where they are.

Add to that most grocery stores sell milk at a loss, below what they pay for it because American consumers assume that the price of milk at each chain store is the best indicator of ALL the prices in the store.

If milk goes to $7 many people will stop buying it and will give their children generic soft drinks instead and that will be a huge downgrade in the nutrition of the nation's children.

Don't want to "think of the children"? How about the farmers....?

Still, a long, cold winter, a farm village fallen on hard times, is the backdrop, not the explanation, for what happened to Dean Pierson on Jan. 21. Sometime after finishing the morning milking, Mr. Pierson, 59, a dairy farmer who grew up on High Low Farm on Weed Mine Road in Columbia County, which his father bought when he was an infant, did something no one will ever entirely explain. He took a small-caliber rifle and went through the barn he built about a decade ago methodically shooting all 51 of his milking cows in the head.

He left a note on the front door that warned the reader not to go inside but to call the police. Then he sat down in a chair and killed himself with a single rifle shot to the chest. He left behind a short suicide note scrawled on scratch paper that made reference to his depression over personal and financial issues. He expressed his love for his family but said he was “overwhelmed.”
...
“And that helps too,” he’d say grimly about the small sawmill he operated, a summer crop he’d put in, anything to keep his head above water. He did virtually all the work himself, the morning milking before sunrise, the afternoon one 12 hours later and all the work in between. Fifty cows is pushing the limit of a one-man operation, but he pushed on, machines breaking down around him until he did, too. And surely, other farmers say, he shot the cows because they needed to be milked and without him there, who could have done it? For him, perhaps, death seemed the only answer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/nyregion/04towns.html?_r=0

[questionseverything]

68. farm subsides should of been there for him

not for the millionaire "owners"

kids do need milk and once the small dairies are pushed out we are all screwed

[sammytko]

34. We pay 3.50 to 4.00 for a half gallon of organic

Wonder how much that would go up?

[WinkyDink]

2. People always blame "Congress", and to MANY Americans, "Congress" = "Democrats."

Why, yes, we ARE a profoundly ignorant nation.

[RC]

3. If you think that is bad, just think of everything made from milk.

Baby calves
Cheese
Yogurt
Cream
Ice cream
Butter
quiche
Scrambled eggs
Whipping cream
Frozen yoghurt
Milk shakes
Egg Nog

And probably a whole host of things I haven't though of. Like putting more farmers out of business.

[A HERETIC I AM]

14. Scrambled eggs are made from milk??

Huh. Who knew?

And I thought I was a pretty good cook.

[PasadenaTrudy]

16. Thought I was too!

We must be doing something wrong?

[A HERETIC I AM]

31. ....

[RC]

17. You put milk in them for softer scrambled eggs. Not a whole lot though.

Oh, I just remembered, omelets use milk too.

[theHandpuppet]

20. Yep. Milk makes 'em soft...

... and a pinch of baking powder will make them fluffy.

[RC]

21. I gotta try the backing power sometime.

[A HERETIC I AM]

25. Honestly, don't bother.

Unless you're making a cake.

A proper omelet needs no baking powder.

[A HERETIC I AM]

24. On the other hand.....

Make them properly and you won't have that problem;

Just watch the first 30 seconds.

That's technique, dammit!

And FWIW, adding milk does little to nothing as far as making them "soft" is concerned.

You'll note if you watch the above video all the way through, that Julia (who trained in Paris at Le Cordon Bleu as well as privately by other well known chefs, don't forget) uses only a dash of water, NOT milk.

[A HERETIC I AM]

27. No, not really.

Try butter instead;

[RC]

28. What does Ramsay know about cooking?

Never mind.

[A HERETIC I AM]

30. LOL....

Not a damned thing!

[NickB79]

43. Hey, has British cooking ever steered us wrong before?

[closeupready]

77. He really honestly is incredible. I started watching

that segment, thinking 'this will not end well', and sure enough, looking at the finished plate, my mouth waters, lol. I love almost all his shows. So, thanks for posting.

[Cleita]

82. What do you think butter is made of?

It's made from cream. I sometimes made my own butter from heavy cream back when I are butter.

[beachbum bob]

5. milk prices will soar if farm bill not passed

Because of tea party house members wanting to cut food stamps....all I can say everything boehner allows his batshit crazies dictate will come back to haunt the GOP...people will pay the price and its been heavily subsidized for decades....

[A HERETIC I AM]

13. This is the typical double edged sword.

Consumers complain if milk prices get too high.

Farmers complain if milk prices are too low.

Of course, more and more milk is being produced on corporate style farms with thousands of head, instead of the family owned, less than 200 head type operations that once dominated the milk producing industry. (I should say, this is what I understand from what I have read. I am not a dairyman, nor am I a farmer)

I saw an interview once with a small operator. He was asked why he thinks more young people are not following him onto farming. This was a guy operating a modest farm with a modest herd in the upper Midwest.

He said something to the effect; "They aren't becoming farmers and dairymen because no young person these days wants to work 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, with no vacation or other benefits for the kind of money I make after expenses. Try and convince a 23 year old to do what I do for $2.50 an hour."

This is in part why we are seeing the demise of the small dairy farmer. Milk cows need to be milked every 12 hours, and in certain situations, every 8 hours. Large operations basically milk 24 hours a day EVERY DAY, with their herds split into groups that are ready for milking as soon as the previous group has finished.

[FarCenter]

15. Small producers left the business due to regulations that raise fixed costs

Only large producers can afford all the equipment and compliance costs.

[Doremus]

18. Nobody needs milk.

In fact, I hope it does double in price, they'd be doing society a favor if they drank less of it.

[Logical]

22. LOL, ok. n-t

[Doremus]

26. LOL really?

What is so funny? The concept that human beings don't need to drink the body fluids of other species to survive? That our society is the only one with such a fixation on cow's milk (thank you, Madison Avenue, i.e. profit-driven plutocrats), and so many other peoples and societies do just fine without it, in fact are much healthier for it?

How funny would it be if I told you that there is no evidence that the calcium in milk improves our bones, and in fact that there is evidence that it does not? That we are actually leaching our bones when we consume it? Funny?

Personally I think it's a crying shame we've been so easily misled, but it's not the first time.

[polichick]

50. I'm with you - cow's milk is not good for humans...

I'd never heard about it "leaching our bones" - interesting.

[Doremus]

79. Dairy leaches calcium from our bones.

http://www.pcrm.org/health/health-topics/calcium-and-strong-bones

2. Get your protein from plants, not animal products.

Animal protein—in fish, poultry, red meat, eggs, and dairy products—tends to leach calcium from the bones and encourages its passage into the urine. Plant protein—in beans, grains, and vegetables—does not appear to have this effect.4

[Skidmore]

66. There is no amount of flavoring that you

can add to the abomination known as soymilk which would make an acceptable sausage gravy to put over biscuits. Period.

[Aerows]

80. Amen n/t

[Le Taz Hot]

84. LOL!

[yawnmaster]

29. Some human groups have been drinking milk (non-human) for 10,000 years...

They and other groups that started at different periods (4000, 5000, etc. years ago) have had their genetics selected for for drinking milk as adults. They produce the proper enzymes (such as lactase).
With some exceptions, such as those groups from east and southeast Asia, man has evolved with milk and milk is an important staple for many.

[Doremus]

39. It's a staple but it's certainly not "important."

"Approximately 65 percent of the human population has a reduced ability to digest lactose after infancy. Lactose intolerance in adulthood is most prevalent in people of East Asian descent, affecting more than 90 percent of adults in some of these communities. Lactose intolerance is also very common in people of West African, Arab, Jewish, Greek, and Italian descent.

The prevalence of lactose intolerance is lowest in populations with a long history of dependence on unfermented milk products as an important food source. For example, only about 5 percent of people of Northern European descent are lactose intolerant."

http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/lactose-intolerance


The continued consumption of milk and dairy by our society is not only harmful to the environment but also to our health. It does NOT do a body good -- and not only for reasons of lactose intolerance.

[yawnmaster]

45. It is still important. 2.45 billion people are not lactose intolerant...

It does do some bodies good.
And it has so many uses and it is quite delicious, too!

Egg nog with soy milk (or any other non-milk milk)...no thank you!

[Doremus]

48. Lactose and human tolerance thereof has nothing to do with it.

When you ingest milk you are leaching your bones, not building them up.

You are ingesting highly inflammatory matter. Inflammation is a contributing factor in heart disease, cancers and many other maladies.

But by all means enjoy your 100% pure milk nog with all its pus, hormones and chemicals. Delish!

[Orrex]

49. Citation, please

Leaving aside your attempt at gross-out sensationalism, I look forward to reading your unbiased sources in support of your claims.

[polichick]

51. "Unbiased sources" - you do realize that when our gov't/corporate partnership...

issues food guidelines, the sources are far from "unbiased," right?

[Orrex]

53. Ad hominem, and it doesn't answer the question

Even if a particular source is biased (as has not yet been relevantly demonstrated in this case), that doesn't mean that a differing source is unbiased.

[polichick]

54. "Ad hominem" how?

[Orrex]

56. It attacks a source as biased without providing evidence

Also without demonstrating that the bias is relevant.

Demonstrate credibly that the bias exists and that it is relevant, and then it becomes an argument rather than a fallacy.

[polichick]

57. Nice try.

[Orrex]

60. Still waiting for those unbiased sources.

I'm not making a positive assertion, so I'm under no obligation to refute an unsupported claim. It is up to the claimant to support the claim.

[Doremus]

71. Are Cleveland Clinic and Cornell University unbiased enough for you?

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, T. Colin Campbell, Dr. John McDougall, Joel Fuhrman are just a few of the highly regarded doctors and researchers that espouse a diet free of animal proteins because of its detrimental effects on the human body.

Further reading:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/heart-disease-a-toothless_b_334285.html

KF: What is the cause of the disease?

CE: It is the typical western diet of processed oils, dairy, and meat which destroys the lifejacket of our blood vessels known as our endothelial cells.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_China_Study#Blood_cholesterol_levels_correlated_to_diet.2C_particularly_animal_protein

Osteoporosis

The authors state that osteoporosis is linked to the consumption of animal protein because animal protein, unlike plant protein, increases the acidity of blood and tissues. They add that to neutralize this acid, calcium (a very effective base) is pulled from the bones, which weakens them and puts them at greater risk for fracture. The authors add that "in our rural China Study, where the animal to plant ratio [for protein] was about 10 percent, the fracture rate is only one-fifth that of the U.S."[28

There is much, MUCH more information from reputable sources available on the web. If you're genuinely interested in your health, as opposed to hurling barbs, it would be well worth the time to do more research.

[Orrex]

81. Thanks.

[yawnmaster]

52. I will continue to enjoy milk and milk product! thanks! Your statements are inflammatory to milk!!!

If you are lactose intolerant, don't drink milk.
the other things you say are very arguable.
You are arguing with epidemiological data, which is correlation but not cause and effect.
Clinical studies don't show it.
For instance:
No effects of low and high consumption of dairy products and calcium supplements on body composition and serum lipids in Puerto Rican obese adults.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20579848

[Doremus]

73. Post 71

[yawnmaster]

85. Milk is wonderful!! oh and here are some links detaching milk from disease...

"Conclusions: These results give no convincing evidence of an increased risk of vascular disease from milk drinking. Rather, the subjects who drank more than the median amount of milk had a reduced risk of an ischaemic stroke, and possibly a reduced risk of an ischaemic heart disease event. These conclusions are in agreement with the results of a previously reported overview of 10 large, long term cohort studies based on food frequency intake records."
from:
http://jech.bmj.com/content/59/6/502.abstract?sid=d50fd08e-f0dc-4bbb-815f-764855fffe5d

"CONCLUSIONS No evidence was found that men who consumed milk each day, at a time when most milk consumed was full fat milk, were at increased risk of death from all causes or death from coronary heart disease."
from:
http://jech.bmj.com/content/55/6/379.abstract?sid=d50fd08e-f0dc-4bbb-815f-764855fffe5d

"Conclusions: The consumption of milk and dairy products is associated with a markedly reduced prevalence of the metabolic syndrome, and these items therefore fit well into a healthy eating pattern."
From: Milk and dairy consumption, diabetes and the metabolic syndrome: the Caerphilly prospective study
http://jech.bmj.com/content/61/8/695.abstract?sid=d50fd08e-f0dc-4bbb-815f-764855fffe5d

"Conclusions In a non-western setting, milk and other dairy product consumption was not associated with adiposity, suggesting that any observed anti-obesigenic effects in western settings may be due to socially patterned confounding by socio-economic position."
From:O1-5.3 The role of milk and dairy products in childhood obesity: evidence from the Hong Kong's “children of 1997” birth cohort
http://jech.bmj.com/content/65/Suppl_1/A16.2.abstract?sid=d50fd08e-f0dc-4bbb-815f-764855fffe5d

[Doremus]

86. Where's the milk drinkers blow rainbow farts study?

I realize you have no idea who/what/where/why or anything else about the studies you posted links to, but at the very least you might want to find out who paid for them.

I purposely avoided posting links to studies because I don't have the kind of time required to properly research the researchers. Hence my reference to Cleveland Clinic and other esteemed institutions and professionals. Now, are you actually positing that your 10-minute harvest of likely-sounding study results are ample to refute their lifelong work? Seriously?

[yawnmaster]

87. Post 85 eom

[Doremus]

89. yawn indeed eom

[RebelOne]

58. Nobody needs it, but ice cream sure tastes good.

I have eaten soy ice cream, and it cannot compare with the real thing.

[Doremus]

72. If it feels good do it?

Good advice if you don't care about consequences I guess.

Personally, I will continue to live on a budget in order to have some $$ to live on in my old age. I'll also keep eating as healthy as I can to actually enjoy old age rather than living as an invalid. But YMMV.

Btw, coconut milk ice cream rocks.

[Puzzledtraveller]

75. Humans were never meant to consume cow's milk.

I have never felt better since I stopped.

[Doremus]

76. Yup!

Within 3 weeks of removing dairy from my diet I had more energy and felt better than I had in the previous 10 years.


non-dairy beverage of course lol

[yawnmaster]

88. But many of us have evolved to consume cow's milk! ...

some mutations are great!!

[reddread]

19. lies and hogwash

if they could ignore the law of gravity the way they disregard basic economics....
the sheer overproduction demand desired by dairy producers using BGH, even while denying it,
the ever increasing larger and larger scale facilities being built by dominant dairies and the MASSIVE environmental costs of dairies and even worse cheese processing plants proves one thing- LESS WOULD BE BETTER IN EVERY RESPECT.
not even touching on the catastrophic health ramifications of a lazy and simple minded dairy rich dietary habit?
omg. come on.
lying through their subsidy and payoff protecting teeth.
add it up already America.

[LeftyMom]

23. We shouldn't be subsidizing dairy anyhow.

[Baitball Blogger]

32. We should all be drinking Almond Milk.

[RandiFan1290]

37. Do you like coconut?

I picked up a half gallon of Silk coconut today and it is really good.

[LeftyMom]

41. Check ingredients on other brands.

I like WestSoy, I use the unsweetened and the ingredients are organic soybeans and water. I liked EdenSoy too but Eden Foods is suing over the contraception mandate so fuck them.

Carageenan is a thickener, it shouldn't be needed, really.

[polichick]

61. Learn to drink it black - unadulterated. mmmm

[polichick]

65. Gotcha - espresso is too much for me.

[polichick]

70. imo rice milk tastes good but it's a bit thin...

I like almond milk for most things but the brand I have right now has carrageenan - not sure what the side effects are with that.

[Doremus]

40. Yes! It tastes better and is better for us. nt

[RebelOne]

46. Or soy milk. It tastes better. Plus I hate almonds. n/t

[Puzzledtraveller]

78. I love almond milk

Have not missed cow's milk one bit. I switched when I found out I had a real allergy to cow's milk. Beside feeling better from no longer ingesting an allergen I felt better all around from just no longer having it in my diet. Almond milk is fantastic.

[NuclearDem]

33. I am required by PETA as a vegan to gloat now.

[RebelOne]

47. I am a vegetarian, so I do eat dairy,

though I only use about one quart of milk about every other week. I only use it for cereal. I love soy milk, but the price of a quart is higher than the price of a quart of milk.

[Coyotl]

36. There is a good chance California will smell better.

A lot of stinky dairies will disappear with doubling of milk prices. That will smell better everywhere except the pocket books.

[FrodosPet]

44. It should be $100 a gallon to pay for the health damage it does

http://www.notmilk.com/kradjian.html

"MILK" Just the word itself sounds comforting! "How about a nice cup of hot milk?" The last time you heard that question it was from someone who cared for you--and you appreciated their effort.

~ snip ~

If you really want to play it safe, you may decide to join the growing number of Americans who are eliminating dairy products from their diets altogether. Although this sounds radical to those of us weaned on milk and the five basic food groups, it is eminently viable. Indeed, of all the mammals, only humans--and then only a minority, principally Caucasians--continue to drink milk beyond babyhood.

~ snip ~

Let's look at the scientific literature first. From 1988 to 1993 there were over 2,700 articles dealing with milk recorded in the 'Medicine' archives. Fifteen hundred of theses had milk as the main focus of the article. There is no lack of scientific information on this subject. I reviewed over 500 of the 1,500 articles, discarding articles that dealt exclusively with animals, esoteric research and inconclusive studies.

How would I summarize the articles? They were only slightly less than horrifying. First of all, none of the authors spoke of cow's milk as an excellent food, free of side effects and the 'perfect food' as we have been led to believe by the industry. The main focus of the published reports seems to be on intestinal colic, intestinal irritation, intestinal bleeding, anemia, allergic reactions in infants and children as well as infections such as salmonella. More ominous is the fear of viral infection with bovine leukemia virus or an AIDS-like virus as well as concern for childhood diabetes. Contamination of milk by blood and white (pus) cells as well as a variety of chemicals and insecticides was also discussed. Among children the problems were allergy, ear and tonsillar infections, bedwetting, asthma, intestinal bleeding, colic and childhood diabetes. In adults the problems seemed centered more around heart disease and arthritis, allergy, sinusitis, and the more serious questions of leukemia, lymphoma and cancer.

~ snip ~

[Lee-Lee]

55. Raise it higher- like gas it needs to be higher to get people off for environmental reasons

The methane produced by dairy cows is a greenhouse gas that is more damaging than CO2 is. We shouldn't be subsidizing an industry that produces massive amounts of greenhouse gasses- be it oil or dairy.

[Orrex]

59. Glad to see this discussion.

The porn threads had gotten a bit old.

[Berlum]

62. Why do Republicons HATE milk?

Pretty damn unpatriotic of the RepubliBaggers.

As usual.

[Orrex]

63. It reminds them of boobies.

[Autumn]

67. Lucky me. I have 2 goats.

[Puzzledtraveller]

74. Almond milk ftw!

I'm allergic to cow's milk.

[Cleita]

83. I stopped eating dairy a couple of years ago.

No cheese or butter either. I use almond milk on cereal and other plant based "milks" for cooking as well as vegetable oils. So maybe people should try to do the same. Of course that means some favorite foods like pizza will be off the menu. However, I find Mexican fast foods like tostadas and tacos just as satisfying and tasty.

[Codeine]

90. So? Cow tit pus is gross. nt