May 4, 2004 2 min read

You’ll soon need at least 58 cents more for a gallon of milk. Judging by the reaction of some consumers you’d think they were being asked to wake before the rooster crows, trudge to the barn through 10 inches of snow and fill the milk bucket for the breakfast cereal. You could argue until the cows come home as to whether the government, such as the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board, ought to be involved in setting dairy prices, but it will do you little good. The government’s hand is in most markets, and at least this time it isn’t picking your pocket to pay for some pork-labeled project. The increase in a gallon of milk, approved last week by the milk board, will go mostly to the farmers – the ones who are still left – to hopefully help them keep up production and cover the rising prices they pay to feed and tend the dairy herds and move the milk to market.

Even at $3.51 a gallon, milk is still a good, nutritional bargain. Isn’t it strange how people will gripe about the price of milk, even thinking about cutting back, but say little when the government adds another dollar tax to a pack of cigarettes.