Consumer Law

The Land of Milk And Mess Ups

By Joe Consumer

Dallas-based national dairy processor Dean Foods was forcing farmers in Vermont and other northeastern states to work with them.  Now they are going to pay - $30 million, that is - to settle a class-action suit for this violation of federal antitrust laws.  (The deal awaits court approval.)  Also today, Dean ?announced plans to issue $400 million in new debt to pay down old debt and named a new chief accounting officer.?

Take note, dairy farms. Just cause you?re ?getting squeezed by big-box stores and supermarket chains looking for price concessions? so that your stock ?is off 53 percent this year, making it the worst performer in the Standard & Poor?s 500 Index? does not mean you get to violate the law.

And by the way, that also includes producing raw milk with E. Coli.

In Minnesota,

State Agriculture Department investigators Tuesday seized hundreds of gallons raw milk and other food produced by a Gibbon dairy farm that has kept churning out product despite a state order to stop.  Raw milk produced by Mike Hartmann's farm was fingered by the state for eight cases of E. coli O157:H7 in May, and seven instances in July and August of other stomach bugs that cause diarrhea and abdonimal pain.?

Seized were 'hundreds of gallons of raw milk', along with cream, yogurt, cheese and meat. ? Raw milk isn't pasteurized -- treated with heat to kill pathogens -- and public health authorities widely decry it as dangerous. But some natural food advocates see it as a healthful tonic of sorts, superior in taste and nutrients.

Hhmm ? nah.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on December 10, 2010 (boomark / email).