Back in April, Mother Jones reported that huge industrial farming companies, such as Dean Foods, were getting into organic milk—only to bend if not break the strict standards governing organic production while the USDA stood idly by.
Milk might seem like a bland issue, but it’s big business: Americans consume more than 6 billion gallons of milk annually. Demand for organic milk outstrips supply, making it an especially lucrative industry.
If you have doubts about how industrial farmers squeeze small farmers and agricultural lobbies squeeze members of Congress, don’t miss the Sunday Washington Post‘s narrative piece on how one farmer tried to buck the system, only to watch and learn as industry lobbyists got Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and others to revoke a Depression-era law that allows farmers who bottle their own milk to set their own prices—without so much as a hearing or a floor vote. And that was just to get one farmer to stop following rules they didn’t like.
Got balls?
