Milk prices are way down ...... will cheese and ice cream and butter, etc., follow?

[Stinky The Clown]

Local milk prices are in full-on deflation. A news story on local teevee told of a small local dairy operation that is getting no more than $1.00 per gallon for their milk. They say it costs them $1.70 produce it.

I'm not sure I have this right, but I think I heard that it has to do with milk prices in Asia. Australian milk production had fallen to critical levels and US milk was helping to meet the demand void. China also stepped up production and then Australia came back on line. Add worldwide deflation to the mix, and milk prices have plummeted.

I only buy a quart of milk a week for my cappuccinos so I never pay attention to milk prices. Has anyone else noticed falling milk prices? How about other dairy products?

[NashVegas]

1. It's Because We're Importing Asian Milk. WTF?

I swear .... Wall St. and company want to kill farmers. It's amazing how hostile they are to small, independent businesses their own families patronize.

"Okay, you can own your own business and be your own boss, and I'll even buy your products because I know they're better than the piles of still-steaming shit I put on store shelves - but I'm going to make it as hard for you to profit or have any political power as I can."

It's pathological. Fucking sociopaths, all of them.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Nonononono ...... no milk from China here ....

.... at least not as far as I know.

The issue is that Australian milk was down, so China ramped up to meet demand at the same time **we** ramped up to meet demand. Now that Australia is back on line, we are producing more than we need ...... surplus .... lowering prices.

We were exporting to Asia ... not importing.

[NashVegas]

6. Ah. K

I was seeing some industrial use of Asian dairy products and (wrongly) assumed it was winding up on consumer shelves.

[grasswire]

7. I think we ARE importing dried milk and its products from China

I read something about that last year. It was part of the melamine scare. I used to keep some dried milk on hand and threw it out and won't buy more.

I wondered at the time that we had never heard of China having huge dairy herds for export.

[elleng]

2. Butter IS down; someone here mentioned it earlier,

and I heard it last night. Don't know about cheese and i.c.

Interesting to learn why.

[yy4me]

3. Not in my neck of the woods. Yipes, milk from China? Do you

think we should start to read country of origin on milk too? It takes me so darn long to shop now. Even though it is just for me, I now feel compelled to read origin on everything. Bangladesh, China, Turkey, Vietnam, Indonesia, Egypt? I do try to buy American but it is hard to do at the grocery store now. Milk at $1.00 a gallon would be impossible here, never happen. A quart is 1.79. And supposedly from New England farms and supposedly fed on natural food, not genetically engineered munchies.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. See my reply, above, to NashVegas ..... no Chinese milk here .....

... at least as far as I know.

$1.00 was the wholesale price paid for milk from the farm to the processor .... not the retail price.

[yy4me]

12. Plain as day, I think my mind was elsewhere when I read your

posting. Sunday is my no-brain function day.

[grasswire]

8. butter is cheap here, but milk is the same

Safeway has its own butter for 99 cents/pound on sale this week. Kroger has it for $2. Milk (non organic) is $2.99/gal. Organic is $4.00/gal.

[Warpy]

9. I looked at butter prices yesterday

and it was over five bucks a pound last year. It's fallen down just under three bucks. I only looked because I'm down to the last box of two buck a pound sale butter I packed into my freezer.

Commodities prices were bid up across the board last year in an effort to make the killing the stock market hadn't produced for over 7 years. They crashed when there was a run on hedge funds last fall, with hedge funds dumping stocks and commodities futures alike in a desperate attempt to stay solvent while allowing many of their investors to cash out.

Milk price supports are still in force and are supposed to insure that dairy owners get parity, at the very least, that they recoup the money it takes to produce the milk. If they're not getting it, then the whole thing needs to be looked into.

[housewolf]

14. Warpy, how do you store butter in your freezer?

Do you wrap it in something? Ziplock bags? How do you keep it from taking on the tastes/odors from the other items in the freezer? How long can you keep it?

I keep butter in the freezer, but it seems to always take on some sort of (unwanted) flavor or another... Do you have any secrets you can share?


:hi:

[Warpy]

15. If it's a 2 pound block from Costco, I divide it

and wrap it in plastic, then put it into a freezer bag with as much air squeezed out as I can manage.

The wrapped butter sticks I just store as is, in the box. That's what I bought a ton of just before dairy prices went insane.

The reason I try to squeeze all the air out is that it will go rancid over time even frozen if it is exposed to oxygen. Commercial butter is adequately wrapped for storage over a year or less, although the stuff I'm using now is over 2 years old with no noticeable loss of quality.

[hippywife]

10. If this is truly happening

I really hope folks will go out there and support their local, sustainable dairies. Here in OK it's illegal for farmers to sell their milk anywhere but on property so I go to them. It's a little extra over the grocery ($5-6/gallon) but it reflects the true, unsubsidized cost of real food and the labor that the real farmer puts into it. We need to keep these folks afloat, it's really essential that they don't fall under the weight of decades of wrong-headed food policy in this country.

Find yours here or ask around your local farmer's market. They can tell you where to find it.
www.localharvest.org

And for those of you who remember and miss inches of cream sitting on the top, you'll be happy you did.

[eleny]

11. I only buy Organic Valley milk

And it's still kind of high since Soopers dropped selling gallons. I get the 1/2 gallons when I see them marked down. I get as many as they have since milk stays well in the fridge that hardly gets opened.

The 1/2 gallons marked down price is $1.50 for the low fat. So it's probably at least $3 full price. The lactose free 1/2 gallon price is $2 marked down.

Yogurt has been on sale 3 for a buck. That's the standard sale price.

eta: I'll have to keep an eye open for organic butter this week. Thanks for the heads up!

[hippywife]

13. When I can't get over to buy raw milk

that's the brand I buy here, too. I like their cheeses, too. They are a very good coop of dairies, much better than Horizon. :hi:

[eleny]

16. I got firm on buying that brand after reading about Walmat

Walmart recently started carrying organic products. The article went on to point out that Walmart carries brands that don'tt have as high standards as others. They sited Organic Valley as the brand of milk with very high standards.

It was good to learn that. So I stay clear of Soopers house brand of organic milk as well as Horizon. If they stopped carrying OV, I'd kick up a fuss and then find a store that sells it.

[hippywife]

17. I knew things had tanked with regard

to the regulations about what can be labeled organic and natural when I started seeing it on large national brand labels, when I saw the generic Best Choice brand come out with a line, I was sure the regulations had been watered down to a new low.

Horizon has been caught not adhering to proper practices so I don't trust them anymore.
http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Legislation/Horizon-dairy-targeted-for-lacking-organic-practices

And I really don't trust WalMart to do anything but what's good for WalMart. I feel bad for the local producers that are going to sell their souls to provide produce for their stores so they can say they carry local product.

[sazemisery]

22. Where are you getting it?

IF it is closer to me than Claremore I want to know.

[hippywife]

23. It is closer to you by a little anyway.

It's in Broken Arrow. I'll send you the info later by PM.

[NashVegas]

18. FYI

I get $1 off coupons online, on OV's website.

[hippywife]

19. That's a great deal!

Thanx! :hug:

[eleny]

20. Thanks!!!

[hippywife]

21. There may be some related info here:

I'm at work and haven't had a chance to read the whole thing yet.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-foodprices2-2009mar02,0,366997.story