Word: programing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Department of Agriculture each week deposits 45 million lbs. of unwanted butter, cheese and nonfat dry milk. The accumulating hoard, which now totals 800,000 tons, or enough to fill a fleet of supertankers, is the result of the U.S. Government's 32-year-old dairy-price-support program. How to keep the stockpile from swelling even larger is now giving the Reagan Administration something approaching collective indigestion...
Like most Government programs, the surplus dairy supports began for sound reasons. Because cows give more milk in spring than in winter, dairy farmers have always had trouble tailoring milk supplies to fit demand. In 1949 Congress passed a law obligating the Government to buy all surplus milk, which it does in the form of butter, cheese and dry milk. The idea was to keep the goods in storage during peak production periods, and then sell them back to distributors later in the year when production dropped off. The program gave farmers a steadier income while stabilizing the year-round...
Some dairy food processors, like Land O' Lakes Inc. of Minneapolis, have figured out another way to milk the program. There is a loyal consumer market for aged Cheddar cheese, which has a sharper taste than new Cheddar. Since storing the cheese would tie up the companies' capital, companies sell the cheese to the Government as a surplus dairy product, at anywhere from $1.36 to $1.39 per Ib., then buy it back at only a 10% markup six months or so later when the cheese is ready for market. The arrangement sticks the Government with the storage...
...program's immediate fault is its excessively generous parity level. A recent Agriculture Department tally found that after 27 years of diminishing dairy herds, dairy farmers last year added 72,000 milk cows, even though the only market for the extra output was the Government. When the dairy program comes up for a four-year renewal vote in Congress some time before Sept. 30, the Reagan Administration is planning to push for leeway to drop dairy-support prices to 70% of parity, or even lower if especially large surpluses occur...
...cutback proposals. The lobby's position is that the price supports are simply helping dairy farmers to make a reasonable profit, which only appears large when compared with other farm earnings. "We are producing too much milk," concedes Dairy Lobbyist Patrick Healy, "but the price-support program exists to ensure an adequate supply of milk. It does that...