In July 2009, Connecticut Public Act 09-229 established an agricultural sustainability account to provide financial assistance to Connecticut milk producers during times when the federal milk pay price falls below a minimum sustainable monthly cost of production. This legislation mandates that...

The branded integration strategy is not new. Recall that Agrimark owned Hood in a joint venture with Agway for many years. It did not work for many reasons, including the fact that Agrimark was prohibited by the U.S. Justice Department from direct representation on the Hood board of directors....

Since November of 2002, the Food Marketing Policy Center has periodically conducted price surveys of milk in New York and Southern New England (Cotterill, et. al. 2002; Rabinowitz, et. al. 2003;Cotterill 2003). Results of these surveys, when coupled with data on the underlying cost of the raw milk, have...

Last November, the Food Marketing Policy Center conducted a survey of retail milk prices in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and parts of southeast New York (Cotterill, et al., 2002). That look at the price distribution over space aided in answering several questions regarding milk...

Farmers want to know how this proposed law will benefit them. This briefing paper explains in a general fashion how the proposed law benefits farmers. Actual benefits from the law will depend critically on the detailed regulations that the Commission promulgates. Those details will include the...

The basic proposition of a fair share milk pricing policy program is the following: Retail milk prices during the low phase of the raw milk price cycle and possibly during the entire raw milk price cycle are high relative to raw milk prices. The large marketing spread is not due to excessive...

Fluid milk market orders are routinely criticized by many because they force consumers to pay higher fluid milk prices. The Northeast Dairy Compact was also attacked as a cartel that if eliminated would result in lower prices to consumers. The fluid milk processors through their trade group, the...

Using recently obtained data on cooperative premiums that give us a more direct estimate of the actual prices paid by processors for raw milk in New England, we have recalculated our impact models. The Northeast Dairy Compact’s impact on consumers, computed net of changes in cooperative...

Before one can talk about solutions to the “milk pricing problem” one needs to identify its many dimensions and then target solutions to specific aspects of the problem. Is the problem one of supply outpacing demand on the national level? Is it the importation of milk components and products...

Good morning. Thank you for inviting us to speak to you today. My name is Adam N. Rabinowitz and I am a Ph.D. Candidate and Graduate Research Assistant in the Food Marketing Policy Center, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Connecticut. Unfortunately, Dr....