Big Dairy’s latest smear tactic

[Morning Dew]

7. the dairy industry profited $11.7 billion off herd retirement

More than 500,000 dairy cows slaughtered between 2003 and 2010 to raise the price of milk.



http://www.citypages.com/2012-02-01/news/cooperatives-working-together-uses-herd-retirement-to-fix-milk-prices/

Last fall, the dairy consortium was served with a civil lawsuit alleging that herd retirement violates anti-trust laws. According to the suit, Land O'Lakes and other members of the co-op colluded in an illegal price-fixing scheme that cheated American consumers out of billions of dollars.

Critics of Big Dairy say herd retirement is symptomatic of an industry almost unrecognizable from what it was 30 years ago. As small family farms like Sonneker's disappear, they're replaced by massive operations designed to produce at high volume. The once-modest farmer cooperatives have turned into nationwide conglomerates that dominate the market.

For the consumer, the timing of herd retirement was particularly galling. Since the economic downturn in 2008, food costs and hunger have affected a growing number of Americans, says Chris Waldrop, director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America.

"The economy was down—more people were out of work, more people were relying on food stamps," Waldrop says. "If prices rise on a staple like that, it makes it harder for consumers to put food on the table."