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In reply to the discussion: The farmers are dumping milk, it could be made into government cheese. [View all]Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)The USDA has known for decades about the problems that are created by price supports, including marketing orders. For example, a 1983 notice in the federal register discusses how USDA price supports for dairy "encourage oversupply." Oversupply, of course, drives down the price of dairy products (unless those prices are guaranteed, in which case the supply simply mushrooms). That leads to calls for more support.
Such support includes massive government purchases of dairy products. Indeed, the USDA regularly buys up surplus dairy products that are overproduced due to the agency's own policies. Just this month, for example, the USDA announced the agency was buying up surplus cheese "to encourage the continued domestic consumption of these products by diverting them from the normal channels of trade and commerce."
Last year, the USDA bought $50 million worth of surplus milk and gave it to food banks.
https://reason.com/2019/03/02/thanks-to-decades-of-government-meddling/