ustxtxb_obs_1974_03_15_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

Editorial and Business Offices: The Texas Observer, 600 W. 7th St., Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone 477-0746. 7.000.7-1 HERE’S WHERE the story starts getting complicated. Because of its size, AMPI can manipulate milk prices in ways that smaller co-ops cannot. Let’s take the San Antonio marketing area for an example. At present, almost 96 percent of the milk sold in the San Antonio area comes from AMPI producers. Only a few years ago there were a number of small co-ops in SA and some independent producers as well. One of the co-ops, Alamo Milk, was selling its product cheaper than AMPI and AMPI didn’t like the situation one bit. Evidence in certain depositions in the anti-trust suit indicates that AMPI ran Alamo out of business by flooding the pool and using other anti-competitive techniques. The method for arriving at the figure to be paid producers is quite complicated, but one needs to understand it to have any comprehension of how the price of milk can be manipulated. For the purposes of pricing, there are two classes of milk Class I milk, which is for drinking, and Class II milk, which goes into making ice cream, cheese, powdered milk, cottage cheese and other non-fluid dairy products. Class II milk always costs less than Class I milk. Department and a number of private plaintiffs contend that the methods used by AMPI to expand its dominion over the milk market are illegal. Under the 1937 marketing act, the majority of dairy farmers \(“producers” in federal government to put them under a market order and thus stabilize the price of milk in that area. There are seven Texas marketing areas under federal order \(see of the milk production in each of these areas. This means that AMPI has more say about milk prices in Texas than any other entity. The milk that most Texans buy helped pay for AMPI’s executive jets, for the Washington apartments and all those political contributions that got the co-op in so much trouble. requirement in San Antonio is 50 million pounds a month and the Class II requirement is 5 million additional pounds a total requirement of 55 million pounds a month. Say the Class I milk is going for going for $6 cwt. Add the two figures together and you get a blend price, which is the price that the farmer/producers will Contributing Editors: Bill Brammer, Gary Cartwright, Joe Frantz, Larry Goodwyn, Bill Hamilton, Bill Helmer, Dave Hickey, Franklin Jones, Lyman Jones, Larry L. King, Georgia Earnest Klipple, Larry Lee, Al Melinger, Robert L. Montgomery, Willie Morris, Bill Porterfield, James Presley, Buck Ramsey, John Rogers, Mary Beth Rogers, Roger Shattuck, Edwin Shrake, Dan Strawn, John P. Sullivan, Tom Sutherland. We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of man as the foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. The editor has exclusive control over the editorial policies and contents of the Observer. None of the other people who are associated with the enterprise shares this responsibility with her. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in publishing them the editor does not necessarily imply that she agrees with them, because this is a journal of free voices. BUSINESS STAFF Joe Espinosa Jr. C. R. Olofson The Observer is published by Texas Observer Publishing Co., biweekly from Austin, Texas. Entered as second-class matter April 26, 1937, at the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the Ac’t of March 3, 1879. Second class postage paid at Austin, Texas. Single copy, 50c. One year, $8.00; two years, $14.00; three years, $19.00; plus, for Texas addresses, 5% sales tax. Foreign, except APO/FPO, 50c additional per year. Airmail, bulk orders, and group rates on request. Microfilmed by Microfilming Corporation of America, 21 Harristown Road, Glen Rock, N.J. 07452. Change of Address: Please give old and new address, including zip codes, and allow two weeks. Postmaster: Send form 3579 to Texas Observer, 600 W. 7th St., Austin, Texas 78701. THE TEXAS OBSERVER CrThe Texas Observer Publishing Co. 1974 Ronnie Dugger, Publisher A window to the South A journal of free voices EDITOR Kaye Northcott CO-EDITOR Molly Ivins ASSOCIATE EDITOR John Ferguson EDITOR AT LARGE Ronnie Dugger Vol. LXVI, No. 5 March 15, 1974 hicorporating the State Observer and the East Texas Democrat, which in turn incorporated the Austin ForumAdvocate.