If we are able to manage or balance the supply of milk with demand and we don't have a level field to operate on, we still have an insurmountable obstacle, and that has to be taken care of.

I would hope that the Department could look at the entire picture.

Senator Leahy is one of those people who forced that discussion.

We'll bring you back in mid-January, how's that?

As all of you know, everybody in this room pays taxes. We put money into the Defense Department, we put money into transportation to build roads, we put money into education to make sure our kids get a quality education.

All of you are struggling to keep your heads above water, or at least in the State of Vermont.

I was very interested to hear Senator Sanders break down, on a regional and State basis, the concentration.

Do you think there's a connection between the two or do you think it's just an accident and a coincidence?

No, you haven't. I don't see any clocks here. When you're the Chairman, you never go over your own time.

We are here today because farmers, dairy farmers in Vermont and throughout this country are receiving the lowest prices for their milk that they received in 40 years.

I'd like to see her pursue that wholeheartedly.

one distributor is responsible for the purchase of more than 70 percent of Northeast dairy production.

I agree totally with what Bill just said.

We are here because consumers, if this trend continues, will not be able to get the fresh, quality food that they want.

Do you believe that, in fact, the Federal milk marketing order system is broken?

It is fairly widely known that in late August 2006, career professionals in your division...concluded a 26-month investigation into far-ranging anti-competitive practices in the dairy industry.

Can family based dairy farmers survive when we have that degree of concentration of ownership in the industry?

After denouncing the Federal Government, they cashed the checks, right?

Do you have concern, Paul, about the alleged concentration of ownership, of one company owning perhaps 70 percent of New England?

Is there anybody in this room who doesn't see a connection between those two facts?

most people assume that when they go to the grocery store and they buy a product, a gallon of milk, they kind of assume that most of that money goes to the people who produce the product, i.e., farmers.

You mean, as we've driving farmers off the land.

Not to the detriment of the program, that it should be done away with for that reason, but it's a concern that I have.

What we have seen in recent years is a growing concentration of ownership in terms of the dairy industry, specifically in terms of dairy processing.

Did everybody hear that? What you're saying is, on average, farmers get 20 cents.