A new lawsuit alleges Missouri consumers paid artificially high prices for dairy products because Dairy Farmers of America and co-conspirators deliberately reduced the amount of milk produced.
Dairy Farmers of America, or DFA, is a dairy cooperative with about 15,000 members in 48 states. It is also a member of Cooperatives Working Together, a group the lawsuit calls a “co-conspirator.” Most dairy farmers join a cooperative, which buys their milk and then sells it wholesale or uses the milk in products produced by subsidiaries.
According to the lawsuit, filed in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Cooperatives Working Together members account for about 70 percent of milk produced in the country. The group, which is a collection of cooperatives and farmers, encouraged its members to sell their dairy cows for slaughter before they normally would have, the lawsuit alleges. The program, called “herd retirement,” reduced the supply of milk, which also is used to make other products such as yogurt and cottage cheese.
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