is by J.R. Freeman i A long line of consumer advocates took a islap at the high price of milk Thursday as ithey paraded before the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board (MMB) with convincing itestimony that the price of the vital food com- {modity in this region must drop drastically. | Testifying before the MMB during a iregional hearing held in the Hilton Inn in {Seranton, ggnsumer witnesses stole the show iby advoc:Bibe a milk price roll back ranging from a suggested retail price of 60 cents a gallon and no more than $1 a gallon. The next iday the consumer advocates were joined by {several dairy farmers who took the same {position. And when the hearing continued {Monday, Louden Hill Farms Inc., which went retails milk in 28 jug stores throughout the iregion, took the position that milk prices in ithe Scranton-Wilkes-Barre area should not lexceed 93 cents a gallon. The MMB now in- sists that milk retail from $1.15 for gallon glass jugs to $1.20 a gallon in paper cartons. i MMB chairman Harry Kapleau, flanked by board members J. Lin Huber and consumer representative Nina Gowls, heard testimony from the y yy first witness, Scranton Atty. John E. V¥ Pieski, that surrounding states enjoyed retail milk prices from 20 percent to 80 percent lower than did Pennsylvania and going to sit still for such MMB regulations. The same position was echoed all day with nearly every’ witness advocating that the MMB get out of retail milk price fixing al- joastier Delayed Hearing | The hearing was called after months of delay stemming from a Commonwealth Court decision brought about because of legal action by Louden Yd Farms Inc., that the board had not shown justification for a six-cent a gallon price increase in 1970. Ruling in favor of Louden Hill, a long-time advocate for lower milk prices, the court ordered the board to conduct additional hearings in which a uniform accounting system should be used by Pennsylvania milk dealers and processors, and that after such hearings, the board was to make determination as to whether to adjust PR During a hearing last January, presided over by then Chairman Huber, Milk dealers said they were not ready to introduce new cost figures under a uniform accounting system, no price adjusting occurred. Chairman Kapleau said last week, however, when dealers, through their legal counsel Don Snyder asked for another continuance, that if they did not present testimony by Monday they would forfeit their chance. . Objecting to another delay by dealers Mr. Sandfort told the press that ‘‘this delay ap- pears purposeful and is costing milk con- sumers $2,000 a day. The dealers are stalling for time while they continue to work with a profit they | be receiving.” The hearings were not concerned with producer’s prices, which are mostly set by federal milk marketing orders. When Atty. Pieski led off, Atty. Snyder, officially representing the Dairies Coopera- tive Federation, asked the board not to accept his testimony in light of a Pieski statement: that he wasting as legal counsel for 24 con- sumer i, who wanted to testify. Atty. Pieski said he was entitled to represent con- sumers as co-chairman of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Consumer Coun- cil. A few moments later the same objection was lodged by Atty. Snyder against Louden Hill Farms Atty. Morey vers. who, likewise, —i AGAINST PENNAS ‘ =! HIGH RETAIL : MILK PRICES Vor A Scranton Atty. Morey Myers, left, rises in defense of his client, Peter Sandfort Sr., president of Louden Hill Farm Stores, seated. said he represented a segment of consumers. Asking the board to overrule the objection, Atty. Myers; a former legal counsel of the MMB, said he and Atty. Pieski were repre- senting a group that has a common interest, and that they were totally correct in repre- senting consumers as a class action. Chair- man Kapleau finally agreed. Farmers Support In sworn testimony Atty. Pieski said that his council represented consumers in 10 counties. He made it plain that “we are not against the farmer receiving a better deal. . but milk from the same farms in Pennsyl- vania is being sold in Ohio and New Jersey for less than in Pennsylvania,” and that ‘it appears that the profit is going to the middle- man and the supermarket chains.” The wit- ness asked for a free competitive market- place for milk, with no need of state regulated protection for the middlemen, which he charged the MMB is now providing. And if Mr: Pieski did not alert Chairman Kapleau that he was sitting in a rather un- popular chair, William F. Matson, chairman of the Pennsylvania League for Consumer Protection, did. “We oppose the milk commissien’s activi- ties,”” Mr. Matson led off by saying, urging legislation that would abolish the need for a milk commission altogether. At the same time the consumer advocate said that the in- terest of the consumer and producer is syn- onymous, while stressing that ‘“‘there’s a lot of fat in the price of milk in Pennsylvania.” The consumer representative chided the board’s recent action in seeking a court in- junction to force Louden Hill to raise its retail price last month from 93 cents a gallon back to $1.15 a gallon, under the authority of a dis- puted milk pricing order which went into effect in 1970. “I know how government agen- cies work,” he told the board. “There are serving some of the big corporations which violate some technical points of the law. And I am suggesting that you, Mr. Chairman, could have done the same when Louden Hill dropped its price.” The chairman quickly re- plied that his agency was ‘‘going to enforce the law’’ as long as it was on the books. Substantive Remarks The more substantive testimony during the day came from Paul Judge, chairman of the Kaufman, president of the Scranton chapter of the League of Women Voters; and Diane Hopkins, a representative of the Childbirth Education Association of Northeastern Penn- sylvania and a member of the Consumer Council of the State Department of Agricul- ture. Similar testimony was given by Carl Davies, editor of the Mountaintop Eagle, a Greenstreet News Co. publication. These con- sumers, among others who testified, were re- YOULL WAT Ti | — E = BEFORE THE BOMD | hold the oe li presented by Elaine Freeman, an MMB con- sumer representative from the Pittston office of the Milk Marketing Board. Mr. Judge submitted to the board a list of 1500 individuals and organizations who op- pose the current high price of milk, while stating that his council had voted to abolish the board’s price-fixing powers. Complaining about the hearing being repeatedly continued and then scheduled during the aftermath of the flood in the region, and immediately fol- lowing the July 4 holiday, Mr. Judge suggest- ed to the board that a ‘‘credibility gap” existed between the board and consumers. Accusing the board of being contemptuous toward consumers at the hearing, he was quickly ruled out of order by Chairman Kap- leau. Mr. Judge, however, asked the board to consider these four questions: —Why the huge gap between producer prices and consumer prices of milk? —Why should such a large milk producing state, the fifth in the nation, pay the highest retail milk price in the nation? ~ —Why high prices when we have the most tem in the nation? —Why is milk produced and processed in Pennsylvania being shipped and sold at retail prices for 20 percent to 30 percent less in other states? “In our view,” he continued, ‘this is an in- sult to our citizens.” Ignoring Consumers Mr. Judge, who heads the state Justice Department Scranton office of Consumer Protection, testifying as an individual, told the board that ‘ ‘Northeastern Pennsylvania is in critical condition and the governor of this state in public statements is advocating a reduction of milk prices and the abolishment of this board’s power to regulation milk prices and I agree with Gov. Shapp and I urge you to represent the public interest and not special interests.” He continued, ‘This board in the past has ignored the consumer and has no record at all of doing anything beneficial to meet the needs of the consumer. The board in my view should be concerned about the farmer and consumers and create a system that would be beneficial to both. The people in this valley have a right to be the maslers of the price they pay for the milk & they provide for their families and I believe the public in this valley support my position.” Mrs. Hopkins explained to the MMB and an audience of about 300, mostly consumers, that she had attempted a private survey among 35 families and found that their average con- sumption of milk was 13 quarts a week, one quart below the standard necessary ac- cording to the Pennsylvania Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health, which released a report to this effect in the spring of 1971. She said that when she asked milk consumers during her survey if a reduction in milk prices would affect their buying of the food com- modity, all said their milk consumption would increase if milk prices fell. Further Mrs. Hopkins testified, only five of the 35 families she interviewed have home delivery. But she pointed out that all of the families she interviewed said they felt that if consumers are willing to inconvenience themselves by buying larger containers and returnable bottles, they should be able to save appreciable amounts. “The savings they receive under current prices couldn’t possibly reflect the savings on packaging, shipping, loading and unloading to the processor,” she charged “Not to mention the nuisance and ecology Problems created by disposable containers.’ Milk Boycott Kaufman told the milk board that middle income bracket families “are deserting the ranks of whole milk purchasers because of the price of the commodity. Among the League members I represent,” she said, “there are several who have done just that. And my mother and I will soon join them if the price does not come down.” The consumer representative continued “It is inconceivable to me that this board, or that anyone making representations to this board can justify present milk prices in this state on the basis of profit when milk produced in this state is sold for one price here and a much lower price in New Jersey. “1 cannot believe that the farmers in New York State,” Miss Kaufman said, ‘‘are that much more efficient than the farmers in this state, that the processors are that much more efficient, that there are no transportation problems like there are here, and so they can, by some magic, unknown to Pennsylvanians, sell milk at 22 cents a gallon less, at the highest, than we can. ¢_..The proof of the pudding being in the eating, we have a case in point with Louden Hill here in this area. Mr. Sandfort (Peter Sandfort Sr., Louden Hill president) is not in business because he loves humanity. He's in business, like everyone eise, to make money. gallon and 53 cents a half gallon and still make money, as a consumer I wonder if they coundn’t be dropped still lower. “In fact,” she continued, ‘in New Jersey, where he sells milk at 96 cents a gallon, it is my understanding from having talked to League members from there, Louden Hill is not the cheapest milk retailer there. There are those who retail milk at'89 cents a gallon, which means a price differential between us and New Jersey of at least 30 cents a gallon. Ecology Problem “I can think of no sound rationale,’ Miss Kaufman said at one point, ‘for the price of milk in a returnable bottle being higher than the price of the same milk in non-returnable plastic or wax carton which will not perform any useful function after the milk is con- sumed and which will only add to the immen- se problem we have with solid waste in this nation and in the world. The League of Women Voters of the U.S. was represented in Geneva at an international conference on ecology. It is shameful to us to admit that this nation is the world’s largest litterer. It should be shameful to you to be a participant in those economic forces which were oy into the world’s largest litterer.” Concluding her remarks, the LVW president. said that ‘league members, with others, are turning to powdered milk. League members, with others, are trying to prote and clean up our environment. We ask, Mr. Chairman, that this board represent the citi- zens or our Commonwealth and assist us. The retailers won’t starve to death and the pro- cessors won't be forced out of business.” Right of Choice Asking the MMB for the right of Choice. Carl Davies said bluntly: “I believe as a consumer in a nation that prides itself in its system of free enterprise that I deserve the right to freedom of choice. And it would be difficult for you or anyone else to convince me that the $1.20 a gallon that I now pay is neces- sary to keep the quality and quantity of milk at the present level, when I can visit neigh- boring states and buy Pennsylvania produced milk at 30 cents a gallon cheaper than I can here.” Emphasizing the economics involved in the distribution of milk, the state’s second largest business, Mr. Davies remarked, “Mr. Chair- man, you know as well as I do that it is com- mon knowledge on the street of any Pennsyl- paying $60 million to $80 million a year more for milk than in adjoining states because the chain stores are flexing their muscles and pinning down milk dealers and cooperatives. Some estimates that I have read in news- papers indicate that local supermarkets are getting as much as 40 cents a gallon for milk above what they pay, while at the same time the teamster contracts are almost as high here ‘as elsewhere in the nation.” Concluding his testimony, Mr. Davies said that he proposed that “milk dealers in this state could sell milk at the reasonable price of 80 cents a gallon and could operate profitable business as a result of the increased sales that would result.” Bluntly he said, “Mr. Chair- man, I do not think that you and the members MMB chairman Harry Kapleau, center is flanked by board members J. Lin Huber on the left and Nina Gowls on the right. of the board have any choice. The consumer If he does not get a fair milk price, you may find milk being thrown away because the market will be gone.” School Bids One witness during the day’s hearing, Ray Wittig, a school district director from New Milford, urged the board to.permit schools to trict in Susquehanna. County had to pay several cents per half pint more than a similar district just across the New York border, and that whatever saving the district could show could be passed on to taxpayers. Gabriel Scioscia, testifying on behalf of Henry Dropkin, manager of the Amal- gamated Clothing workers of America, termed the current price of milk immoral be- cause it was preventing children from obtain- ing their required quantity of milk. Saying Diane Hopkins, one of many consumer ad- vocates, sits at the witness stand during Thursday hearings. Beside her are several milk substitutes which she says are being used in the place of whole milk, that he represented 5,000 residents in the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre area, he said that he did not disapprove of the board as such, but did strongly disapprove of the price fixing powers of the MMB. While the milk controversy is far from over, perhaps the feelings of most of the consumer witnesses could be summed up by the com- ments of one spectator in the hearing. She told _a stranger sitting next to her, ‘‘This is crazy. The next thing they're gonna tell us is that they're gonna put a price control on bread.” Paul Judge, chairman' of the Lackawanna- Luzerne Citizens Council for Consumer Justice, asks the board how it can maintain the high price of milk. AI iar Dam
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers