Milk prices could double after 'dairy cliff'
An expiring farm bill will boost costs just as the nation's tastes change.
Amid a holiday season filled with gun violence, Superstorm Sandy fallout and fiscal cliff worries, even seasonal American creature comforts like a short stack of cookies and a tall glass of milk are laden with worry.
Dunk those snowman-shaped sugar cookies at your own risk and ration Santa's to-go glass, because milk is going to get a whole lot costlier if congressional inaction continues.
The current agriculture bill expired this summer, and temporary aid to farmers is set to expire on Jan. 1. That includes a dairy subsidy that allows the government to buy up milk if prices below half of the $3.65 national average. Without that plan in place, the per-gallon price will jump to roughly $7.
New York Sen. Chuck Schumer brought up the issue during a news conference in September, according to CBS News. He warned that milk prices could double for consumers already putting nearly 11% of their grocery budget toward dairy products, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The problem is that the vacuum left by the agriculture bill's absence would be filled by a statute dating back to 1949. Under those terms, the government would have to buy back milk at double current prices, which would increase costs across the board for companies like Kraft (KRFT), Hershey (HSY) and any other that uses large quantities of milk.
"If you like anything made with milk, you're going to be impacted by the fact that there's no farm bill," U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told CNN's Candy Crowley in an interview for “State of the Union” slated to air Sunday. “Consumers are going to be a bit shocked when instead of seeing $3.60 a gallon for milk, they see $7 a gallon for milk. And that's going to ripple throughout all of the commodities if this thing goes on for an extended period of time.”
That's not exactly great news for the dairy industry, either. Milk prices were already up after the summer drought stifled milk production and grain prices increased, but Department of Agriculture numbers already show a 30% decline in milk consumption since 1975. It's dropped 3.3% already 2012 from 2011, the biggest decline since 1975.
As much as the dairy industry may want to pin losses on alternatives like soy and almond milk, sales of all types of liquid milk has fallen 2.9% by volume since 2011 as total dollar sales have slipped 2.2%, according to market-research firm SymphonyIRI Group. However, the dairy industry is taking a huge hit as sales of skim and low-fat milk have dropped 4% by volume.
Chris Galen, a spokesman for the National Milk Producers Federation, which represents over 30,000 dairy farmers, told CNN that the looming price hike is a “dairy cliff” that could forces manufacturers to consider dairy imports or alternatives. Though the price hikes would take a few weeks to hit supermarkets, continued Congressional inactivity would ensure a spike if the current farm bill isn't extended or a new farm bill isn't implemented.
Considering Congress is home for the holiday slugging back as much milk as consumers are, Americans may want to savor a relatively cheap sip or two while it can.
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Farm subsidies are socialist / communist / Marxist BS. Any government interference in the free market by subsidies to " lower " or prop prices, or sin taxes (most every tax is a sin) to raise prices, hinders development of more efficient means of production that keep prices lower overall. Real conservatives know that. I don't think there are any Democrats left in office left understand that, and lost of the Republicans speak as though they know but they clearly are just Democrats with less cash in their pockets and thus not as liberal.
Here is the deal -
>no money in your pocket / bank account == liberal (govt to pay for it all, since when you have no money then money is no object - a pun that's figurative and literal)
>some money in your pocket / account == conservative (govt to keep hands off)
>a fair amount of money in your pocket / account == conservative (govt to keep hands off AND let business flourish)
>Lots of money in your pocket == liberal (as in every one else should be on an equal footing - except the rich liberals who need to keep their money so they can still jet about telling others why such others should be taxed more for the common good)
Where's Oprah when we need her? She gave away cars on her show (well they are donated by Govt Motors so why doesn't she give all her money to the FED since that MUST be the place to spend it best?) Ditto for POTUS Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Michael Moore, Georges Clooney and Soros, and all the other wacko libs. Despite all the whining about GOP, the Dems in power have gotten us so much further in debt than GWBush and the past 4 presidents combined - ala' ObamaCare and more union pandering. So now we need to hit rock bottom to know which way is up. God help us now - Romney would have slowed the inevitable but POTUS Obama is taking us there on the fast train to nowhere. I can't believe less than half of those who voted were able to see BO is the Manchurian Candidate incarnate. Boehner and GOP need to take the cliff message to the streets and let the Dems hang themselves. Too bad the GOP is just as guilty for failure to address this issue, and merely less guilty for the amount of debt.
They have also stated that if the current bill DOES lapse, any price fluctuation would be months down the road, which means enough time to pass something more meaningful and have it in effect before pricing is affected. Apparently the experts they spoke with disagree with the Chris Galen that makes statements in the above article.
Frankly, you've got more to fear from the weather than you do from congress, at least in the form of dairy. Drought caused corn prices to skyrocket, which causes livestock farm cost to skyrocket, which means their goods will, you guessed it, skyrocket in price. Mother nature still has more control over economics than congress and lately, works faster.
We do have Farm subsidies to help Control prices, We are the BEST FED Nation in the World.
Some Farmers have a tough go of it, mostly due to Weather conditions, others due to disease or catastrophes.....And then a few because of mismanagement or lack of skills.
Most of the"cheap beef"has all came to Market,because of past droughts..Some/part herds were lost.
There are other options to drinking milk...For many....Usually not children.
I DON'T BELIEVE the $7 dollar/gal milk scare...
I guess much of the Farm Bill includes "food stamp program."??
I don't believe that Multi-million dollar Corporate farm functions, should get subsidies at the same type of percentage(%) levels.....If any ??
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