Crisis concerning America's Dairy Farmers

I got this mail from Farm Aid & it concerns the Dairy Farmers

Top officials at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) are sitting on recommendations from their Antitrust Division to indict two of the biggest firms in the U.S. dairy industry: Dairy Farmers of America (the nation's largest dairy cooperative) and Dean Foods (the nation's largest fluid milk processor).

With thousands of dairy farmers going out of business this year alone, there is no excuse for any more delays. The crisis in the dairy industry may seem confusing, but the numbers tell it all. Since the mid 1980s, the gap between farm milk price and retail milk price has steadily widened. It's outrageous that over the last 20 years, farmers have received less and less for their milk even as consumers have paid more at the grocery store. The middlemen are making all the money!

America has lost over half its dairy farmers in the past sixteen years, with fewer than 60,000 dairy farmers remaining. During that time, the DOJ Antitrust Division has repeatedly allowed unrestrained takeovers and market abuses in dairy at the expense of both America's dairy farmers and consumers, and it's time we put a stop to it.

So what happens if we don't take action to save our dairy farmers?

We risk losing tens of thousands more farmers from the land and billions of dollars from our rural economies. We risk being forced to rely on more factory farms and imported milk substitutes that compromise public and environmental health and safety. We risk losing our choice for safe, local milk from family farmers we trust.

Carolyn Mugar, Executive Director of Farm Aid is calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to restore fairness to the marketplace, save our dairy farmers & fight against corporate control.

Now I didn't know the situation concerning our Dairy Farmers was this bad, with do many going out of business. My hope is that AG Holder steps in & restore some level of fairness toward Dairy Farmers