Having lived in the US and Canada, I can tell you milk prices are definitely not the same. But I also believe you get what you pay for.

An amazing article!

Funnily enough, I've always though we paid about twice as much for our milk here in Canada than you do in the US. A 4 liters bag of 3.25% milk costs between $5.91 and 7.35$. The 2 liters carton of 3.25% goes from $3.39 to $4.09 (in the province of Quebec at least). It's a little cheaper (but not by much) for 2 or 1% milk. And since the prices are fixed, you can't really shop around for a bargain.

I studied at an Agricultural university university here in Canada and we learned a lot about dairy farming when we took a first year "Introduction to Agriculture" course, including visiting a dairy and during my summer employed there I visited a number of dairy farms to help with research into cropping systems (and one of my co-workers was married to a dairy farmer with a herd of 500).

Here, from what I have seen, farmers are mostly happy with the system. It is governed on a provincial basis and ensures that prices are fair and that farmers do NOT fall into huge amounts of debt but that milk is also available to the consumers at fair prices.

There is not much "shopping around" for cheaper prices, but when Costco came to my side of town milk prices (for 4L) dropped by about $2.

It's not just dairy farmers, sadly. My father-in-law runs one of West Michigan's largest fruit farms. They harvest a comparably large amount of fruit compared to their neighbors but are still considered small business. With a little over 800 acres, they have plenty of crop to sell. Unfortunately, crops like cherries and peaches don't earn them any money and most years cost them because their selling price per bushel is so low. Last year for their grade A cherries they received ~10% LESS than it cost to produce and was considered a much better year than usual. Apples are what make their money, but it's still a tiny sum in comparison to costs. All farmers are having this problem, even hay farmers in my neck of Texas. To combat some of this local economic decay and keep people working (the unemployment rate in my FIL's county soared to 35% two years ago) he rents land from other farmers. In exchange for enough money to keep their land and home from being foreclosed for backed taxes, he keeps their trees healthy and productive. No, they don't receive a profit percentage, but what profit is there to speak of anyway?

"Corporate milk processors call it socialism. But could it work?"
The fruit market is regulated in this way already. They have to shake upwards of 50% of their cherries on the ground some years to prevent flooding and drop just as many apples and peaches for the same reason. It helps, but it's not perfect. However, everything little help adds up.

It's all quite sad how small time farmers are being driven out by big box markets that refuse to buy local instead of national companies that drive small farmers down.

@SarahBerneche and @Christine M., thanks for the input on Canadian milk prices. To be fair, Estabrook calls his comparison "admittedly unscientific." I think his larger point is that the difference in consumer prices is not as outrageous as those who are against production limits would have you believe.

Maybe not outrageous, but it has a direct impact on the price of cheese. *sigh* But I get the why of it.
My uncle used to run a small (less than 30 cows) dairy farm before his health got in the way and it seemed to be working all right. I know that in Quebec there are farmers that complain they have to throw away an important quantity of milk every year because of the quotas, but I'm no expert on this matter. And sorry for the typos in my earlier comment, I tend not to reread myself before I hit the 'submit' button.

maybe i'm in the minority here, but where i live, plain, nonorganic, not special milk costs roughly $4 a gallon. that's HALF the cost it takes to make it? no wonder i dont buy it.

It's not just about the milk. Compared to other U.S. agricultural practices, the family-owned dairy has stayed relatively small (particularly in the northeast), cows are mostly pastured, and dairy facilities are supposed to be kept very clean, so they aren't the filthy hellholes that CAFOs are.

That being said, dairy farmers routinely get shafted (like many other farmers) by the giant processors to whom they must sell their milk. In fact, Vermont dairy farmers are currently in a class-action settlement with Dean Foods (pretty much the largest dairy conglomerate in the U.S.) for monopolistic practices. Co-ops are the way to go. That's who we bought all our milk from growing up in ND, was the Cass-Clay (Cass county, ND and Clay county, MN) dairy co-op.

@jenawithonen - where do you live? If you do not have dairy farmers in your area, it is likely that your milk costs would be higher than other places. Milk is highly perishable (as we all know) and shipping it in from far away can add transportation costs. No local dairies also generally means no local co-ops, so you're probably buying milk that's shipped in from elsewhere and has no local competition.

Conversely, your state might also set floors on dairy prices, like ND does. Which might account for higher prices. It is also illegal in ND to give away milk (so all those free milk with cereal purchase coupons mean you get orange juice in ND).

I admire Barry Estabrook's reporting. I wish his findings were more commonly read.

@jenawithonen: $4 is what you pay. The dairy farmers receive less than $1 per gallon from the pasteurizing plants.

We have no dairies in my part of the country either. Cows raised here are raised for strictly eating. So all our milk is shipped in. Last year it was $4 a gallon. Now we're inundated so it's less than $2.

I imagine the dairy farmer the book talks about who committed suicide might be the one from Copake, NY, which is near Albany. He also shot all of his milking cows before he shot himself. Milk here in the Albany area this week is around $2.60 a gallon or less. I grew up on a dairy farm in the area - my parents sold everything about 12 years ago. They have told me that dairy farmers get paid the same amount per pound of milk now as my parents got paid when they first started farming in 1978. It's gotten to the point where BST is the only option for some farmers. (Side note - the farm I grew up on is now half inactive and half owned by Amish who moved into the area a few years ago.)

I wonder if the book talks at all about the fact that the number of milk processors that farmers can sell to has dwindled? It seems that Garelick owns just about everyone. The large processors also have a slow turn-around time for the milk as well, resulting in "fresh" milk at the supermarket that is already old. In comparison, small processor Stewart's in the eastern NY area brings milk in, bottles it, and sends it to their stores in the same day. Between that and the higher standards for how much crud (bacteria, dirt, etc. parts per billion) is allowed in milk, I find that milk from small processors like Stewart's and Crowley's tastes a whole lot better than Garelick or Price Chopper. It's no wonder that so many people don't like the taste of milk - they don't know what fresh milk tastes like! (Trader Joe's passes my "grew up on a dairy farm" taste test as well, but we don't have any TJ's nearby - hour and a half to the nearest one.) I think I kind of got off on a tangent - having few processors means that the big processors are in control of the market, the farmers don't have much choice in who they can sell to.

Thanks for highlighting this story on Apartment Therapy.

One way around the monopolistic practices of distributors like Dean Foods, Horizon, and the rest is to form producers co-ops. Here in Chicago, Wisconsin Organics has done that successfully, with many of their products finding shelf space in traditional grocers such as Jewel Foods.

It doesn't offer any short term help to long suffering dairy farmers, but it's a possible way out.

Here's another part of the problem: customers *think* they have a choice between processors, because they see different brands in the supermarket. In actuality, the different brands (at different prices) are all bottled by the same processor, at the same plant. Here's an article from VT about it: http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=fcc5095e-72cc-4f99-a35f-be295f2fc6fc

Link: http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=fcc5095e-72cc-4f99-a35f-be295f2fc6fc

Link: http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=fcc5095e-72cc-4f99-a35f-be295f2fc6fc