Got milk?

Milk prices have gone out of sight. We don't buy as much with the grandson moved out of the house, but I just about need a guarantee that every drop will be consumed before I bring another gallon into the house. The price of cheese has escalated as well. My favorite 2 lb. bag of grated cheese is nearly $9 now. Needless to say, I monitor its use quite closely.

So imagine my surprise (and secret pleasure) when I ran across this article in the New York Times about the dairy glut that we are now in the middle of. Seems other parts of the world have developed a taste for dairy, thanks in part of the spread of McDonald's, and that (along with drought in New Zealand and Australia) produced high demand for American dairy. And that, my peeps, made for reduced supply in the US. Ergo higher prices for us.

The economy is in the tank globally as well as locally. This is bad, yes. Really tough times are ahead for all of us. Still, I couldn't stifle a little spark of happiness when I realized that there was actual hope that dairy products might eventually become affordable here in the US again. Milk, cheese, sour cream, ricotta, cottage cheese, mozzarella, parmesan--these are all basics in my kitchen. In normal times, I could only occasionally afford a taste of anything more exotic. I can't be unhappy that the home market will get a break for a while. I doubt we will be able to afford those exotics anytime soon, if at all, but it will be nice to get back to a more normal supply of affordable dairy products.

If that sounds a tad callous in regard to the income and well being of American dairy farmers, do note that we have price supports for dairy. The USDA will buy much of the surplus produced and put it into food programs for the poor, meaning more protein and Vitamin D for them, and continued production in the dairy sector. The high prices for the rest of us was a by-product of globalization. Lower prices will be a by-product of the collapse of the market. Dairy farmers will still get paid, just not so much.