Use of got milk? in Ad Misleading, Owens on Witch Hunt

NO. SYRACUSE, NY (10/17/2009)(readMedia)-- Bill Owens, candidate for the 23rd Congressional district has been running misleading TV ads claiming the price of milk at retail is "still high", at a time when the price dairy farmers receive is low.

I don't know where Mr. Owens shops, or if he even drinks milk. Retail milk prices have in fact dropped dramatically from a year ago when dairy farm prices for raw milk were at record highs. Monthly surveys from the Federal Milk Market Order (FMMO) Administrator's office clearly disagree with Mr. Owens. USDA reported the average price for a gallon of 2% milk in the Syracuse market in January 2009 was $3.06/gallon; in July the surveyed price was $2.29!

Retail milk prices in New York State are very competitive. Retailers use a wide variety of marketing and product mix strategies to set shelf prices. For example milk is sometimes used as a lost leader to entice shoppers to their stores.

Mr. Owens' ad claims there is "price manipulation". He is right. However, he points his finger at the wrong entity. Manipulation that exists is imposed by dairy farmers and their cooperatives in our country. Dairy farm cooperatives lobbied decades ago for the creation of a Federal Milk Market Order (FMMO) system that calculates the price they receive for raw milk each month. The FMMO system doesn't set dairy farmer prices; instead they are calculated using a formula that takes into account various supply and demand factors.

Owens claims Sam the dairy farmer is producing "just as much milk". He is wrong. In fact dairy farmers in the nation and New York State have been expanding milk production, with few exceptions, by 1-2% every year for decades.

Mr. Owens states prices dairy farmers are "getting paid" are "less"? True, however this is directly related to the fact they are over producing raw milk. When milk consumption is less than supply, farm prices are supposed to be lower and justifiably so.

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, who helped to inspire this ad, and Mr. Owens are both on a witch hunt looking for a bad guy responsible for lower farm prices. The bad guy is consumption of milk which has been on a decline for the past 4 decades from 40 gallons per person in the 60s to about 20.5 currently. Competing beverage choices have taken their toll on the entire milk industry, much to the entire dairy industry's demise.

The manipulation of retail milk prices Mr. Owens says he will stop if elected doesn't exist. He will waste tax payer's dollars and industry resources looking for witches that aren't there.

His arrogant and unauthorized use of the dairy industry's positive "Got Milk?" registered trademark in his TV ad is unsettling. The Got Milk ad is normally used to help stimulate consumption. Here, it used instead by Owens to disparage segments of the industry. To garnish votes, he divides a struggling dairy industry committed to seeking new economic answers for increased sales and farm prices.

Mr. Owens doesn't provide any good answers or solutions in his ad to help dairy farmers increase milk sales. Is this the type of Congressman the 23rd district deserves?

About Northeast Dairy Foods Association

Northeast Dairy Foods Association, Inc. is a full service trade association representing dairy product processors, manufacturers and distributors since 1928.