Follow this blog:: RSS

$8 gallon milk coming to the U.S.?

By David Worthington | December 27, 2012, 8:10 PM PST

White gold

The price of bread. How much a dozen eggs will cost. All of those things have big implications for the working poor in the U.S, and soon, families could be forced to pay as much as $8 for a gallon of milk if Congress fails to act on a farm bill before the end of the year.

Washington’s gridlock is sending the U.S. over the “fiscal cliff,” and could send the price of milk soaring over the “dairy cliff” if federal agriculture subsidies aren’t approved by December 31st. Congress must act on the continuation of a 1949 policy that requires that the government buy milk from dairies to break the impasse.

There are major differences between a bill passed by the Democratic led Senate and the GOP dominated House, which has yet to muster votes to take any action. Disagreements over how to subsidize farms, how much to cut the food stamp program, and how dairy prices should be stabilized are some stopping points.

Political gridlock might mean an untimely end to the milk mustache.

(image credit: medexpressrx)

Related on SmartPlanet:

Did the “fiscal cliff” debate dampen holiday spending?

Start your week smarter with our weekly e-mail newsletter. It's your cheat sheet for good ideas. Get it.

About David Worthington

David Worthington is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

Full Bio
Disclosure
Contact

If you liked this, don't miss...

Comments

Add Your Opinion

Join the conversation!

Follow via:: RSS

Top
Rated

In an honest world that would happen john.

But the sad reality is the game has been rigged agaisnt small farmers for decades. The tax laws have been designed to kill small farms for decades, now the EPA is even in the fight.

Funny how these EPA ideas always seem to come up after big farm lobbyists visit the White House.

EPA declares hay a pollutant in effort to drive small, mid-sized family cattle ranchers out of business. http://www.naturalnews.com/033537_hay_pollutant.html

Small farms would be forced to pay a $23,000 annual permit fee for green house gas emissions. The same flat fee amount as the mega corporation farms 1,000 times their size putting out 2,000 times the green house gases.

http://mfbf.org/legislative-news-briefs/2012/07/epa-greenhouse-gas-rules-spell-doom-for-agriculture/

Posted by Hates Idiots

28th Dec

Just
In

Quite true.

It's amazing how much "farming" is taking place in Manhattan.

http://www.usda.gov/documents/8907Manhattanmap.pdf

It's easy to see why milk might be $8/gallon if subsidies were eliminated. Central Park-view condos are not cheap.

Posted by JohnMcGrew@...

29th Dec

Show:

Please Select

+4 Votes

+ -

Small Dairies

Why doesn't congress start buying milk from small, local dairy farms, which are ~~actual~~ farms as opposed to buying milk from and subsidizing large corporate factory farms that produce filthy, bacteria loaded milk that is simply pasteurized to be "cleansed"?

Posted by johnstratoudakis@...

28th Dec

Reply
Flag

-1 Votes

+ -

What makes you think small dairies are any better?

I don't know why you think small dairies would be any better than large dairies. For example. all dairies have to meet the same strict federal hygienic guidelines. Every time a cow is milked, she has to be washed and disinfected before the milking machine can be attached. All equipment which touches the milk has to be periodically cleaned and disinfected. Inspectors make surprise visits and test the raw milk for bacteria as well as inspect all other parts of the operation. All dairies must maintain a certain amount of pasture per cow, no matter how large or small they are.

The idea that the size of a diary operation affects the cleanliness of the milk is just plain wrong. Much of it depends on the operator, and it has nothing to do with the size of the operation.

Posted by zackers

28th Dec

Reply
Flag

+2 Votes

+ -

How many large dairy farms do you visit?

"All dairies must maintain a certain amount of pasture per cow"
That doesn't mean that the cows will ever get to see the pasture. In large operations the cows stay in the barn all of the time and the fields are used to grow the cash crop. The large dairy farms where I live milk the cows on a 24 hour schedule and don't have time to let them out and bring them back in, that is why the cows get pumped full of antibiotics to try and keep them from getting sick. I prefer the smaller operation where the cows get to roam free.

Posted by tntwells

28th Dec

Reply
Flag

+5 Votes

+ -

In an honest world that would happen john.

Posted by Hates Idiots

28th Dec

Reply
Flag

0 Votes

+ -

Right wing hyperbole

HI, both of your cites are just right wing hyperbole and fear mongering. In neither case are the proposed rules anywhere close to as draconian the articles seem to indicate.

Posted by riverat1

28th Dec

Reply
Flag

0 Votes

+ -

I have seen dozens of small farms go under in the past 40 years.

Tax structures have long favored large farms.

Just look at estate taxes. The current $3 million dollar exemption does not even start to cover the value of the land on a 300 acre farm in Massachusetts when the federal valuation puts it at $80,000 an acre. Forget about the small 10,000 acre farms like my friends have in Nebraska. For the last 20 years small farms must incorporate before an owner dies to avoid estate taxes which put many simple farm families in the position where they just sell out because they cannot afford the lawyers and CPAs involved to meet federal tax regulations.

If the local town is lucky a farm corporation buys them out and the farm continues operating. If not, another condo complex or development of duplexes goes in and the farm land is lost forever.

Now the EPA is in on the racket. Flat permit and fee structures, like the proposed $21,000 flat rate greenhouse gas fee are all structured to favor large farms. Similarly large flat fees are already in place from the FDA and other agencies for everything from grain silo permits to milk holding tank permits.

Reading your post I guess you must feel a flat per farm permit fee of $10,000 per year for a milk holding tank permit is fair whether the tank is a 2,000 gallon tank on a small dairy farm or a 100,000 gallon tank on a big industrial dairy farm? If you think that is fair, you are part of the problem.

Please tell me what about those policy facts are hyperbole or fear mongering? You have no clue the impact of government policies on small farmers. You are clueless on the matter.

Almost all of the small farms for 100 miles around here have become wholly owned subsidiaries of conglomerates just to survive. They are still operated by the same people, for now, but they answer to a higher corporate entity and all of the profits leave the area. Big arga-corps have been buying them to take advantage of the whole 'localy grown' movement.

The rest of the long gone small farms have been paved over for housing developments.

Posted by Hates Idiots

Updated - 28th Dec

Reply
Flag

+1 Vote

+ -

Sorry, not at all clueless.

I come from a family of small farmers. In my teen years up to about the age of 22 I spent summers working on my uncle's farm. My 2nd cousins ran a dairy with about 70 cows. I was a member of the FFA in high school. My father was a County Extension Agent with a Masters in Ag Econ. Don't try to tell me I have no clue about small farms.

Tax structures and other regulations in this country favor larger businesses of all sorts, not just farms.

I don't disagree with you that estate taxes should be structured in a way that family owned farms and other small family businesses retain a continuity of business and are not unduly burdened by it.

You know, I spent close to an hour Googling for your $21,000 (or was it $23,000) flat fee for greenhouse gas emissions and came up with nothing other than your previously cited links and related stories. The EPA site had nothing about it that I could find. Unless you can point to the specific place in the specific EPA regulation that specifies that fee I still consider it hyperbole.

Same thing with your $10,000 per year permit for milk holding tanks. Yes, they are regulated as they should be. If they're not required to meet certain standards they could be a source of widespread illness. But I didn't find anything about a $10,000/year fee. I've never heard my dairy farmer cousins mention anything about that but I'll ask them about next time I see them if I remember. So where should I look to find out about this $10,000 fee or is it just more hyperbole?

Government policies have a major impact on small farmers but EPA regulations are not the reason we are losing small farmers. It has more to do with them not being able to compete with the economies of scale that larger farms produce.

Here in Oregon we are not losing small farms to being paved over for housing developments. In the 1970's we passed a land use law that prevents that. Land that is zoned for farm use can not be converted to housing. Most farmers are in favor of the regulation because it prevents someone from putting in a development next to their farm that has people that then complain about their farming practices such as plowing at 5 AM or pesticide use.

Posted by riverat1

Updated - 2nd Jan

Reply
Flag

0 Votes

+ -

Personally, I'm looking forward to "the cliff"...

...or at least the one that happens on the 1st.

Perhaps when people discover how badly subsidies have screwed up the economy, they'll demand actual "change" instead of just more of the same that we've seen over the last decade.

But the "fiscal cliff" they're all talking about now is just theater. The real "cliff" is the one that we go over when the rest of the world comes to the conclusion that there is absolutely no way that we can repay the >$50,000 per head of debt we've charged up, and the dollar becomes worthless.

Just wait to see what a gallon of milk will cost then.

Posted by JohnMcGrew@...

Updated - 28th Dec

Reply
Flag

-6

Humans still drink milk?

Posted by Chaos Dynamics | Below your threshold

+3 Votes

+ -

It's all milk products

It's not just milk. It's also cheese, ice cream, sour cream, and any other dairy product.

Posted by zackers

28th Dec

Reply
Flag

+2 Votes

+ -

Sensible Spending

A bloated farm bill with special interest spending is typical of what is killing the US economy and the future of this country. It is way past time for some frugality in spending and making our spending priorities reasonable choices among the many options that we have for spending our tax dollars. Personally, I would like to see the price of milk hit $8 or more per gallon, as well as chicken, and cow meat, which are all artificially underpriced as a result of our governmental action to steer people to certain food choices.

All federal food industry price supports need to be reevaluated now, not later. Maybe, perhaps a few legitimate tax dollars should be spent to support the ag industry in some special circumstances; but not the mega spending that we currently lavish on the special interests that come feeding at the federal milk trough. Unwise spending MUST STOP.

President Obama keeps talking about fairness and balance; so where exactly is the fairness and balance in the agriculture industry as it is proposed by the current bill?
The Farm Bill should be systematically disassembled and reconstituted with some intelligent thought going into wise spending for actual programs that will serve the American consumer and not line the pockets of special interest groups.

Just a thought.

Posted by dcr100@...

28th Dec

Reply
Flag

0 Votes

+ -

Quite true.

Posted by JohnMcGrew@...

29th Dec

Reply
Flag

Join the SmartPlanet community and join the conversation! Signing up is fast and free. Don't wait -- we want to hear your opinion!