Northeast dairy farmers sue milk handlers

A group of dairy farmers is suing four milk marketing firms, saying they've engaged in monopolizing the market into which farmers have had to sell milk, fixed prices and created an economic crisis in the Northeast dairy industry. The Washington-based law firm Cohen Milstein says it expects many farmers will join a class action suit against Kansas City-based Dairy Farmers of America and Dallas-based Dean Foods Co. The suit alleges DFA and Dean have seized effective control of the region's dairy industry and are forcing farmers to join DFA or its marketing affiliate Dairy Marketing Services to survive. DMS and HP Hood also were named as defendants. Brown said DFA, the nation's largest dairy cooperative, and Dean, the largest processor in the United States, had worked together to lower prices paid to farmers for their milk "by making DFA and its affiliates the exclusive suppliers of milk to Dean and HP Hood." Dean and Hood bottle about 90 percent of the fluid milk sold in the Northeast, Brown said...read more