Cost-of-Production Based Milk Price System Proposed

Posted by Brian Gould Fri, 01 May 2009 14:34:00 GMT

The latest proposal from Sens. Arlen Specter and Robert P. Casey Jr., Democrats of Pennsylvania, would require the USDA to base the Class III price upon the national average cost of production.   In practice, the bill would fundamentally revamp the way the government dictates minimum prices that food companies must pay farmers for milk. But the bill’s ambitious reach appears to be its stumbling block; lobbying groups for farmer-owned cooperatives and the companies that buy their milk both oppose it.