3 bills take aim at milk prices

[dkf]

With just days left, House Republicans continued to struggle Saturday night over how to untangle themselves from a New Year’s imbroglio over dairy policy and their refusal to allow floor debate on a more comprehensive five-year alternative in this session of Congress.

Absent some action, an outdated 1949 farm law kicks back in on Tuesday Jan 1 requiring the Agriculture Department to begin buying up dairy products at a rate of $38.54 per hundredweight or more than double the prevailing price today.

No one truly knows the full impact at the grocery store, but the threat of $6-a-gallon milk prices brought President Barack Obama off the sidelines Friday and accelerated efforts to find some fix to be voted on possibly as early as Monday.

Toward this end, not one but three different bills were posted Saturday night on the House Clerk’s website, each a candidate for action but also adding to the confusion as to what direction the House will take.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/3-bills-take-aim-at-milk-prices-85583.html#ixzz2GXZE5uZu

[Berlum]

1. The Dairy Cliff cometh - January 1, 2013

Image from Z6Mag

[sammytko]

11. If you already pay 6-8 dollars, wonder what that will go up to?

Ten?

[Berlum]

18. Most folks say prices will about double

...that's what I've heard...we shall see

[dballance]

2. Well, Really We Humans aren't supposed to be drinking milk Anyway

We're not really biologically or evolutionally made to drink milk beyond our mother's milk during infancy. In fact, milk makes a lot of people ill.

One could conceivably compare the very successful marketing campaign that sells milk to the cigarette ads of the past. No, don't jump on me because milk does not cause cancer like cigarettes do. I'm only comparing the ad campaigns and not the products.

I'm sure there are other ways we can get our calcium for those strong, healthy bones the dairy industry has been telling us about for decades.

[dkf]

3. Milk..meh. Cheese? Gotta have my Parmesan / reggiano.

[Orrex]

4. What does "we humans aren't supposed to" mean?

No one disputes that a lot of people have difficulty processing dairy, but a lot of people have no trouble at all, and in fact they make it a major staple of their diet.

How do you determine which of these groups represents what we humans are "supposed to be" doing?

[dballance]

5. Well Maybe By Scientific Studies

Maybe by the fact that the majority of people in the world don't consume milk after infancy and live just fine lives with healthy bones.

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/environmental-health-reasons-dairy.htm

http://www.notmilk.com/kradjian.html

http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/hurtful-food-cows-milk-and-kids-arent-made-for-each-other.html

Humans are not supposed to be drinking cow's milk all their life. I stand by that statement. Just because many people tolerate it just fine doesn't make it right or healthy to drink it. So sorry to crash your concept of the basic food groups.

[HappyMe]

6. Cereal is kind of useless without it.

Sorry, I'll keep drinking milk and enjoying cheese and ice cream.

[Orrex]

8. I don't know how you can live with yourself, you disgusting aberration.

Shame on you and your vile dairy habits.

[HappyMe]

9. I know.

I have been abandoned by family and friends because of it!

[progressoid]

20. I do soy milk on my cereal.

Took a little getting used to but now I rarely do regular milk for gastrointestinal reasons

But on Christmas day I had some great triple cream French cheese. Ymmmm.

[Orrex]

13. Easy there, fireball!

Don't flatter yourself--you're not crashing my anything. But you should probably dig up better material to support your argument.

First link:
Lists 8 Things I Hate About Milk, but doesn't actually cite any research to support its claims. Certainly it doesn't provide any compelling reason why "humans aren't supposed to" drink cows' milk. Makes several interesting statements about the environmental impact of dairy cows, but that's not the point that you're arguing. Also, the internet-based slideshow is the worst format for presenting info in the history of interpersonal communication.

Second link:
This is a lengthy opinion piece by a surgeon who cites sources between 20 and 82 years old. Also, the statement is made repeatedly that humans can get calcium "from exactly the same place the cow gets the calcium, from green things that grow in the ground." That's lovely, except that humans don't process plants the same way that cows do, so I'm not sure how/if this is relevant. Also lots of speculation about diseases that appear to correlate in some way to dairy consumption, but no solid evidence of causation. I'd like something with more current data, thanks.

Third link:
Opinion piece, and a very shallow overview in any case.

Look, I can see that you're itching for a fight here, but I don't feel as strongly about it as you do, so I'm not going to spend too much time on this. Here's a tip, though: get yourself better citations, because it's not reasonable to send someone to a 40,000-word opinion piece that ultimately doesn't support your point.

[Aerows]

7. I have no problems with dairy

I love cottage cheese, milk and I've yet to meet a cheese I don't like. I love my dairy products.

[GaYellowDawg]

16. Speak for yourself.

We're not really biologically or evolutionally made to drink milk beyond our mother's milk during infancy.

Actually, some of us are evolved to drink milk. It's called lactase persistence:

Swallow DM (2003) Genetics of lactase persistence and lactose intolerance. Annu Rev Genet 37: 197–219.

Tishkoff SA, Reed FA, Ranciaro A, Voight BF, Babbitt CC, et al. (2007) Convergent adaptation of human lactase persistence in Africa and Europe. Nat Genet 39: 31–40.

Enattah NS, Jensen TG, Nielsen M, Lewinski R, Kuokkanen M, et al. (2008) Independent introduction of two lactase-persistence alleles into human populations reflects different history of adaptation to milk culture. Am J Hum Genet 82: 57–72.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. Given the ambivalence towards cows milk would it be more appropriate to not have price

supports at all?

[dkf]

12. Seems reasonable to me.

[datasuspect]

14. all of our food is poison

[Romulox]

15. This story is nonsense; consumer prices are set by *supply* and *demand*, not the gov't...

If the gov't is "forced" to pay double for milk, it will not increase the demand for milk amongst consumers one iota. Nor will farmers be able to sell more to the gov't.

So how will farmers be able to get double the price from consumers? What rule of economics makes it likely?

[smirkymonkey]

17. I can't even stand the sight of milk, but I love cheese. Especially Pecorino Romano on my pasta.

Also, feta, brie & goat cheese. However, if prices go up too much, I will just have to cut back since I don't really tolerate it that well anyway.

[Berlum]

19. Damn dairy all you want, if that's your thing

...but you need to acknowledge that a great many millions of Americas see things differently, and that milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream and such are an important part of their diet.

This is going to be tough not just on farmers, but also on those milions of American consumers -- who are no better or worse than those taking the HOLIER THAN THOU -DAIRY IS EEEVIL STANCE.

[jwirr]

21. Someone must have been listening to Ezra a couple of nights ago.