In this country and around the world, dairy farmers are losing money because of a glut of milk. Prices for raw milk are down 40% from a high two years ago. You might not have noticed it since grocers haven't lowered their prices in kind. It was record high prices in 2014 that attracted farmers to bring more cows on line to produce more milk for more profits. Now, they are paying for that greed and some are going broke in the process.
This year alone, 43 million gallons of milk have been dumped in fields, and used as animal feed. Cows are being killed off in order to keep prices from falling any further. The fear is that there will be an uncoordinated overreaction, milk shortages will result, and prices will soar. One has to wonder why the Department of Agriculture hasn't stepped in to manage the situation on a coordinated basis.
References:
Got milk? Dairy farmers dumped 43 million gallons of milk this year: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/10/13/got-milk-dairy-farmers-dumped-43-million-gallons-milk-this-year.html
America’s dairy farmers dump 43 million gallons of excess milk: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/americas-dairy-farmers-dump-43-million-gallons-of-excess-milk-2016-10-13
Why Do Milk Prices Spike And Crash? Because It's Like Oil: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/05/488708017/why-do-milk-prices-spike-and-crash-because-its-like-oil
Killing Off American Cows to Keep Milk Prices High: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-08/cow-killing-and-price-fixing-in-your-supermarket-dairy-aisle
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment