Obama sues big milk producers

Local dairy farmers applaud anti-trust lawsuit

By TOM KANE

WASHINGTON, DC — Local dairy farmers are cheering for the action taken by the Obama administration to move ahead on a long-standing antitrust lawsuit against several major milk processors.

A class action, antitrust lawsuit was filed on October 8 on behalf of Northeast dairy farmers against the Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) and Dean Foods Company in U.S. District Court in Burlington, VT.

“The Bush administration’s Department of Justice sat on this suit for years and refused to prosecute it,” said John Bunting, a Delhi dairy farmer and well-respected agriculture journalist.

Local dairy farmer and Wayne County Commissioner Brian Smith also welcomed the lawsuit. “I’m not as interested in punishing them as I am that they will come to realize that we need a valid pricing system that takes into consideration the costs of production that farmers must face. My hope is that they will begin to realize that they represent all the dairy farmers and are interested in more than their profits.”

Smith said he was actively campaigning to be elected by dairy farmers to the DFA board. “I want to get into a position that I can make them aware of how dairy farmers feel about their efforts to oppose a fair pricing system.” Smith said he has been encouraged by the reaction of dairy farmers to his candidacy.

The suit charges that DFA and Dean each monopolized a level of distribution of fluid milk in the Northeast and forced dairy farmers to join DFA or its affiliate, Dairy Marketing Services (DMS), in order to survive.

DMS and milk processor HP Hood were also named in the suit for aiding DFA and Dean’s monopolization and for price fixing.

Northeast dairy farmers blame DFA, the nation’s largest cooperative, and Dean, the nation’s largest processor, for lowering the price they received for fluid milk by making DFA and its affiliates the exclusive supplier of milk to Dean and Hood. Together, the two processors bottle about 90 percent of fluid milk in the Northeast.

“Monopolization and price-fixing have contributed to the milk pricing crisis dairy farmers, especially small, family-owned dairies in the Northeast, face today,” said Benjamin Brown, the lead attorney in the antitrust lawsuit against the coops. “Many dairy farmers have been forced to choose between joining DFA or DMA or going out of business.”

In a press release sent to The River Reporter on October 22, the DFA said, “We will aggressively defend ourselves against allegations as we believe them to be without basis…. We are continuously looking for additional ways to increase dairy farmer pay price and net returns, not suppress them, and have been successful in doing so.”

All attempts by phone to reach Dean Foods were unsuccessful. The email address on their website rejected any message.