50% Food Inflation - Farmers Go Bankrupt

[WhiskeyGirl]

The planned economy on trial?

"Calif dairies going broke due to feed, milk prices"

...Across California, the nation’s largest dairy state, dozens of dairy operators large and small have filed for bankruptcy in recent months and many teeter on the edge of insolvency...

Experts say California dairymen face a double whammy: exorbitant feed costs and lower milk prices. The Midwest drought has led to corn and soybean costs increasing by more than 50 percent this summer, stressing dairymen from Wisconsin and Minnesota to Missouri. But in California, milk prices have also lagged behind those in the rest of the nation, exacerbating the crisis.

Milk prices are set by the government, no free market.

"Since 2008, California has lost nearly 300 dairies, with 1,668 remaining as of January, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture..."

http://www.delawareonline.com/viewart/20121001/BUSINESS06/310010031/Calif-dairies-going-broke-due-feed-milk-prices?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Business|p

For her woes, Cameron blames state officials’ decision to keep milk prices lower than those in other states.

California has had its own milk pricing system for dairy since the 1930’s, separate from that operated by the federal government in other states. The California Department of Food and Agriculture sets minimum prices that must be paid to farmers in the state for five classes of milk.

In recent years, California’s prices tended to be lower than in other states. In 2011 and 2012, California’s price for milk used to make cheese was frequently $2 or more lower per hundredweight of milk than in the rest of the nation.

http://www.delawareonline.com/viewart/20121001/BUSINESS06/310010031/Calif-dairies-going-broke-due-feed-milk-prices?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Business|p

Why?  Why would the State of California keep the price of raw materials low?  Reduce reimbursement to farmers?

On one hand, MILLIONS to people who never farmed, just thought about it (Pigford)...on the other hand, forcing hundreds of farmers in bankruptcy?

Why is this happening?  Why does it seem like the State of California want farmers out of business?  Destroy America's food supply?  Who's buying up these farms?

Early in the Obama admin, they destroyed groves of trees and lots of farmland by turning off the water.

Why kill agriculture in California?  The rest of America?

Just my humble opinions.

[WhiskeyGirl]

Why aren't dairy farmers in California getting a fair price for their milk?

Do these low prices for milk mean California cheese has an unfair advantage compared to cheeses produced in other states? 

What of farmers in other states that get a 'fair' price for their milk?  Perhaps their products don't sell as well and they lose market share?

How does any worker or farmer compete with the planned economy?  Slave labor? 

Is California any different than China?  The planned economy causes poverty, loss of income and opportunity for some, creates sweat shop millionaires among the political elite.

The result?  Unfair compensation.  Cheating some of businesses that have been in the family for generations.  "They didn't build that."

It should be a simple thing to allow California farmers a fair price for their milk.  Why are they getting ripped off?

Farmers say California's weak milk prices are to blame.

Wilson says, "The problem with California is our two dollars behind the rest of the nation. As far as dollar values, California dairymen are being robbed about a million dollars a day out of their milk checks."

The group says they are tired of being ripped off. They want a fair price for their product and are demanding Secretary Karen Ross make that change.

Mark Lucio runs a hay lot. He says this situation isn't just crippling the dairy industry.

Mark Lucio, owner of Lucio Hay Company, says, "Everything based especially in the central valley is based around dairies. I mean 1600 statewide dairies create 440,000 jobs here. When you go out there and you do lot of money and your customer is a dairy farmer, we go as they go."

California Department of Agriculture Secretary, Karen Ross has recognized the problem and formed a Dairy Task Force to find a long term solution. But farmers say something needs to be done now, before any more dairymen are forced out of business.

read more here - http://www.ksee24.com/news/local/Dairy-Rally-Calling-for-Change---AGR-172743381.html

[WhiskeyGirl]

"I have been in this business for 57 years and I have never been in financial trouble like I am right now," said Cameron, who runs the Atsma-Cameron Dairy with her two sons. "I’m on the verge of bankruptcy. It’s horrible and inexcusable."

read more here - http://westernfarmpress.com/markets/california-s-dairy-troubles-continue

Why aren't these folks given their fair share of income?

Perhaps it's time for 'free markets' in California?

Or, is the goal to put these farmers out of business?