Big Milk

My local newspaper recently published an article entitled, "Rising Dairy Prices Begin to Hit Home," which focused on the fact that the price of a gallon of milk nearly reached $4.00 in July 2007. The article went on to note that dairy prices were up for the following reasons:

• overseas demand for whey and other components of milk
• feed costs because of ethanol (driving the price of corn up)
• laws of supply and demand

While a gallon of milk is nearly $4.00 the price of a gallon of gasoline hovers around $3.00 so I have to pose the following questions --

1. When will the government investigate, 'Big Milk', in the same way they have attacked 'Big Oil' ?
2. Perhaps the CEOs of the big milk producers need to testify before Congress?
3. Will Congress call for a windfall profits tax on milk producers?
4. Will Al Gore lead us to the Promised Land by exploring "alternative milk" options?
5. Does the Head Start program need even more funding due to rising milk prices?
6. Should there be a special tax levied on milk guzzling families?
7. Will the US military invade India or Russia to ensure the free flow of cow milk for our economy? :-) (Top cow milk producing country rankings noted here -- http://www.fao.org/es/ess/top/commodity.html?lang=en&item=882&year=2005)

Bottoms up,

Todd