Lawsuit: Farmers Killed Healthy Cows To Keep Prices High

Several major producers of dairy in the United States settled an anti-trust lawsuit for $52 million alleging that dairy farmers killed more than 500,000 cows in order to raise prices by reducing milk supply.

“This cow-killing program exploited both the animals and the consumers, and resulted in the early deaths of half a million cows,” attorney Cheryl Leahy, who served as general counsel for animal protection group Compassion Over Killing, told The Huffington Post in an email.

As a result of the settlement, residents who bought milk in Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia or Wisconsin from 2003 to 2011 may be entitled to a cash payout.

Dairy Farmers of America, Land O’ Lakes, DairyLea Cooperative and Agrimark, as well as dairy lobbying group National Milk Producers Federation settled the 2011 suit – though did not admit to wrongdoing — amid allegations that they implemented a “herd retirement program” in which they purchased healthy cow herds from small farmers and slaughtered them, likely to be turned into ground beef. Approximately 70 percent of America’s milk producers supported the program, notes Bloomberg.

“No [dairy farmers] got rich on that program,” Gary Genske, who serves as treasurer of the National Dairy Producers Organization and is also a dairy farmer in New Mexico. “It was those who were financially strapped and found that as a great exit strategy.”

Farmers typically receive less than a third of the retail price of a gallon of milk in profits, with the majority going to retailers and processors. According to Genske, milk sometimes sells for even less than the farmers’ cost to produce it.

“These dairy farmers are up against a terrible reality,” said former New York dairy farmer Nate Wilson. “They don’t have any way to throttle the production of milk other than to eliminate cows. And when the price of milk goes down to ruinous levels, it’s basically the only way out.”

Sources: Huffington Post, Bloomberg / Photo Credit: Scott Bauer/Wikimedia Commons