Why Does Milk Cost More Than Gas?

May be its a naive question but I honestly don’t get it. There is no outcry about a gallon of milk costing more than a gallon of gas. Read some where Ethanol is the reason for higher cost of milk. Dont understand the relationship. Would be interested to know what yall think.

To follow up on this question - I was reading that there might be a trillion gallons of milk stored in Canadian milk sands. Why isn’t it economically feasible to mine this? It seems to me that it ought to be easier than milking cows.

sid3699 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > May be its a naive question but I honestly don’t > get it. There is no outcry about a gallon of milk > costing more than a gallon of gas. > > Read some where Ethanol is the reason for higher > cost of milk. Dont understand the relationship. > > Would be interested to know what yall think. Man, I guess you live in the USA. A couple of years ago it was the same for the crude oil I guess. In my country the gas is more expensive than milk. “If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.” George Bernard Shaw

JoeyDVivre Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > To follow up on this question - I was reading that > there might be a trillion gallons of milk stored > in Canadian milk sands. Why isn’t it economically > feasible to mine this? It seems to me that it > ought to be easier than milking cows. Nice…and here I though Wisconsin was the dairy capital! Honestley enough I’ve wondered about this from time to time. But I think a gallon of oil, is still cheaper to extract on a weighted avg basis than a gallon of milk. If you think of how cheap it is in the Gulf to pump oil and how relatively much more time and capital is needed to produce milk this still makes sense. But once much of that cheap oil is gone, and our oil comes from the tarsnads of Alberta and the deep seas off of Brazil, Borat land etc. then I’m not sure if this relationship is true any more. To complicate matters, a big chunk of what your pay for with a gallon of milk is the energy costs implied with it, and trasnporting it to a store near you.

One explanation i read on some article was- “American ethanol is made from corn, and the more corn we use to feed our cars, the more expensive is the corn left over for our livestock. Ergo, “No Milk Today”. But countires like Brazil make much cheaper Ethanol from sugarcane. Unfortunately, agribusiness lobby and a 54-cent-per-gallon import tariff, is kept out of the country.” Surely, there is another way to get around this. Kids from low income families will grow up drinking less milk? Or I may have missed a new scientific breakthrough and gasoline is the NEW nutritious drink for kids. Leaving all economic theories aside, milk is as basic and essential a commodity as water. If milk is going to be a luxury item, the SECOND COMING OF JESUS CHRIST is round the corner, if you believe in the prophecies:)

Cows eat corn and soy feed, which is being sold to ethanol producers instead of cattle farms because the ethanol producers are willing to pay more for it. The cost of maintaining a milk cow has increased, thus the cost of milk has also increased.

A gallon of Coca Cola is more expensive than a gallon of gas also, and that is just sugar water.

What percentage of your income is spent on gas vs. milk? Therein lies the answer to your outcry question. “Read some where Ethanol is the reason for higher cost of milk. Dont understand the relationship.” Ethanol is made from corn. Cows also eat corn. More demand for corn > higher prices for corn > higher cost to feed cows > higher milk prices.

I’ll bet I’m the only person here who spends more on milk than gas.

Joey - I wish that was the case for me. I think I’m spending ~$350 / month on gas. Next job will be within biking or walking distance or on a bus route.

JoeyDVivre Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’ll bet I’m the only person here who spends more > on milk than gas. make that two:)

I’ve got a milk power automobile. It’s got a cracking mootor.

sid3699 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > JoeyDVivre Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I’ll bet I’m the only person here who spends > more > > on milk than gas. > > > make that two:) After I wrote that, I decided I was probably wrong. Keep drinking the milk.

Why should we expect milk to cost less than gas? The supply costs are different and the demand quantities are different. I don’t see any reason to expect one to cost more or less than the other; nor any reason they should cost the same: they aren’t substitutes, after all.

A gallon of milk has cost more than a gallon of gas for the last 20 years. It’s got nothing to do with ethanol, and everything to do with marginal demand and marginal supply. Econ 101 kids. Why do diamonds (with almost zero utility) cost more than water, which is essential to all life?

JDV - you are 28 posts away from 10,000. Hopefully the site doesn’t crash when you surpass the number.

I heard that their was a huge demand for milk products in China and that has caused milk prices to increase. Plus it costs more to transport milk now :frowning:

no one has mentioned that milk spoils (always wondered why the rest of the world has accepted shelf-stable milk a la parmalat but the US won’t budge) makes storage and transport complicated + a huge amount is literally poured down the drain. I worked in a grocer during school and would venture to say there was a 33% shrink in the milk department. Higher for produce and similar for meat. Marketing=Need full shelves to sell product… even if half gets dumped.

When I moved to Manhattan early last year a gallon of milk was 2.09. Now it’s over $3.50. What’s changed? Idiot government leaders mandating ethanol. How? As others have said, cows eat corn and soy, not to mention other farm products (hay and alfalfa). Since corn has raised in price, cow food has gone up, not only because they eat corn, but also because farmers are producing more of their cash crop (corn) reducing supply for other crops (hay and alfalfa). Since this also hurts the fields (corn is hard on the fields) it increases fertilizer and other nutrients needed, increasing costs more. Then, since these inputs into ethanol cost more, and fuel prices have surged because of it, transportation costs have gone up, adding more inputs into milk costs. You can thank ecothiests and idiot government panderers for this.

JoeyDVivre Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’ll bet I’m the only person here who spends more > on milk than gas. nope. Where I live, 2 Litres of Milk is $4!!! We have plenty of dairy farming, but price is regulated…it sucks. $9 a gallon for milk roughly…$6 per gallon of gas