KC-based dairy co-op under investigation

The Kansas City Star broke a story this afternoon, that could possibly bring milk prices down in the near future. At least that is my hope, after reading the story, that I have posted in it's entirety below.

The Kansas City-based Dairy Farmers of America farmer-owned cooperative, which controls a third of the nation’s milk supply, is under investigation for price fixing, according to a published report.

The report, in the Monday edition of The Wall Street Journal, also says that the Justice Department will investigate a recently disclosed $1 million transfer approved in 2001 by Kansas City-area resident Gary Hanman, then-chief executive of the cooperative, to the then-chairman, Herman Brubaker. There was no answer Monday morning at Hanman’s home telephone number.

The cooperative, which is based near Kansas City Internationl Airport, collects raw milk from its more than 18,000 farmer members throughout the U.S. The co-op processes and sells it for bottling or for making other products, including cheese or butter, at its own plants or at ones owned by others. The price-fixing allegations are being reviewed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is looking at whether the co-op sought to drive up prices of milk through trading of cheese contracts at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

by Jennifer Mann

One-third of the nations milk supply, is a significant amount of the nations milk we drank. If the Justice department finds that price-fixing did in fact happen, we could see a reduction in milk prices across the board. Something, I would welcome highly. I mean with milk prices near $4/gallon, it would be welcome to see prices drop, even it was only by $1/gallon.

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