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05/01/2004: "Don't cry over regulated milk, because socialism tastes better with cheese"

So there's a milk shortage. Production down 2% from a year ago. And the shortage can cause retail prices to swing up to 10% for each 1% drop in milk production according to Mr. Milk Expert in today's Strib article. The solution?? Raise the price paid to farmers for milk by about 50 cents per gallon, to stimulate production.
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Don't blame farmers, said Bob Lefebvre, director of the Minnesota Milk Producers Association. Farmers on average get about 30 cents of every dollar consumers spend on milk, and milk prices in 2002 and 2003 were at 20-year lows, he said.

Barb Liebenstein runs Wolf Creek Dairy, a 400-head farm in Dundas, near Northfield. She said the past two years were "really rough."

"We don't regulate the price of milk at all," Liebenstein said. "If the people that work for me want a raise, I can't raise the price of milk.
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They sound so nonplussed, it sounds like farmers don't want regulated milk prices at all! I guess we all just need to notify our Congresspeople, and by next year we'll have a free market for milk and Barb can raise her price whenever she wants to! Which of course won't work, because huge dairy operations across the country can undercut small dairy farmers. And that's not even considering the INSANE geographic pricing. So I guess we're stuck.

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