Yes, it is true that Eau Claire, WI was written into the law as the base
pricing location.
But that is not the same thing as a higher pay price as you went out
further from Eau Claire. That is why the politicians could claim that it
was "true" even though the pricing did not follow that pattern
throughout the country.
Because milk is so perishable, pricing was based upon moving the milk
from areas of high production to those of either lesser production or
high population areas so that the milk prices would allow for the
timeliness of selling the milk. It has been claimed by some that a true
market pricing was not possible due to manipulations that could be taken
by processors, but my view is that is one of the strong reasons to have
a cooperative or other marketing agent representing you and protecting
you from loss of ability to sell. Many of the MMO's make sense though if
you are trying to stabilize a price since the first buyer had to pay the
farmer the calculated price for that time period. And some of the
pricing had to be after the fact due to the discovery process.
The danger is that it lead to farmers in our area not really paying much
attention to western competition. (I don't know about other areas).
Instead, they just felt the system was "unfair" and lobbied their
politicians to make it "fair." You do not hear it as much now, but
from
time to time it still seems to come up as "fact." When I ask farmers
what the real numbers are they either don't know, or if they do know,
they kind of look the other way and admit that maybe our region really
does get a higher price than some other areas quite distant.
Rick W.
F. W. Owen wrote:
>>A kind of mythology developed over the years with the famous
>>claim that the further you are from Eau Claire, WI, the higher the pay
>>price. Even though, untrue, many farmers still believe it.
>>
>>
>
>Just a minor correction here. The law was actually written that way at one
>point.
>
>Arbitrary and capricious it was, but It did help the Nation in that
production
>was eventually moved somewhat more evenly around the country.
>
>
>
